Something New
by MorohnFan2012
Summary: If someone had told him 6 months ago that he would be here in this room with her, with a whole new family while simultaneously being able to stay apart of his old one, he would've called them crazy. Then again Jax never expected him and Carly to end. He doesn't regret it though because he thinks he's finally found the one for sure this time.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Ok! This is my second story which I feel bad for writing now because I'm supposed to be writing on my Jim/John story for Sherlock but I'm just not motivated.**

**Alright this is my second attempt at writing a Jax/Elizabeth pairing. I tried to about 3-4 years ago. This one I'm hoping will go better. The beginning of this story is starting around mid-2010. I figured it was a good time because it allows for both Josslyn and Jake to be alive! (Because I love him dearly Jake will not be dying in this story. It broke my heart to watch. Oh and Josslyn won't get cancer either) **

**I can't say exactly when because I haven't hammered out the best time but I'm thinking around July when Jax was using Skye to make Carly jealous. I'll either take out that part altogether, or wait until Jax finds out that Carly slept with Sonny and working it out from there.**

**Oh and one more thing the Niz affair did happen but it ended in January when lucky found out, and Elizabeth never became pregnant. Nick and Elizabeth decided to mutually end their relationship…I think. Also because of the affair Lucky has basically severed all ties with Elizabeth and neglects his duty as Cam and Jake's father. (I can't remember exactly how he was with his son's during this time but Lucky has never really been the most present father and he isn't later on so I'm really just fast-forwarding the process)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own GH if I did many things would be different than they are now (though I must admit I love Jerry being Port Charles now with all his evil planning)**

**Something New**

**Chapter 1: The Fallout  
**

Jax couldn't believe what had just transpired in the last 30 minutes. He had been so sure that their family would be able to start over and that they could be whole again. He should've known better. Honestly, Carly could never stay away from Sonny for long no matter what the man had done. He just couldn't understand how Carly could forget everything that had happened and allow herself and her children to be around Sonny. It was as if the fact that Michael had been shot and put into a coma wasn't a big deal anymore now that he had finally woken up.

It drove him insane, but he guessed that this was partly his fault as well. His role in trying to put Sonny away for the murder of Claudia and it ultimately ending with Michael being sent to Pentonville was enough for her to turn Sonny into the victim he's sure. In one night Carly changed the villain in her mind from Sonny to him. She decided to sleep with Sonny as a kind of revenge for all the wrong she thought was wrought against her.

He hated how no matter what happen she always turned to Sonny, or if he was what she momentarily declared was what she hated (not that it ever seemed to last, regardless of the fact that she said she would never let him back in) then it was Jason she went to. Never him. Never her husband. And honestly that is what drove him the most crazy, she **never** came to him with her troubles or problems, there was always someone else; mostly Jason. Carly told him when they first became involved that Jason would always be an important part of her life, her best friend and he wouldn't be going anywhere. Jax thought he understood, after all he viewed Alexis the exact same way. He thought he could handle it, but Jason and Carly's relationship was nothing like his and Alexis's. Carly needed Jason in a way that Jax never needed Alexis. Sure when he was lost and needed a new perspective he would go to Alexis, but Carly had to have Jason, and the only way she thought she could hold onto him was to go to him, tell him things, talk to him, go to comfort for; all of these things that she should've been coming to Jax for.

After nearly five years Jax was finally facing, and accepting, the reality that no matter what he would never truly be number one in Carly's life, and he was rarely even in the top two. It caused a deep, painful, and anguished ache to resonate through him.

Jax wasn't sure why now, in this moment, it affected him so deeply; it was hardly the first time he has ever been confronted with the fact.

But that wasn't entirely true. When he really gives it some thought, and reflects on how each time they break apart and come back together, when he realizes that each time it was harder to find a reason to come back and easier each time to find a reason to leave again, when he looks at all of it it's easy to realize; he's just exhausted.

Each tearing apart and then being carefully being glued back only to be torn again has worn him down. For all his love of Carly he just doesn't think he can take anymore. He can't try to fix his family again, just to have to watch it all be torn apart again. He simply doesn't have the strength or the even the will to try anymore.

He's loves Carly but the fact is that they have reached the point where they are no longer good or healthy for each other. All they do anymore is hurt one another. Well not anymore, to salvage what is left of his family Jax will have to do the hardest thing there is to do, let Carly go so they can still enjoy their family together. After all he doesn't plan on abandoning Morgan or Josslyn, he just now see that the only way for them to still stand a chance of raising and keeping their family whole, is for him and Carly to not be together anymore.

He stands from the bench he was sitting on by the pier and walks over to the edge by the water. It was late and the moon shone quite beautifully on the water, which was still tonight; calming. It helped settle his mind and find a quiet but sure confidence that he was making the right decision.

"I just hope that this one time you will listen to me Carly. Listen and see that this is right."

* * *

Elizabeth walked down the stairs and flopped down on the couch with a long sigh. She hated the way things had gone lately. She was constantly carrying around this horrible guilt, which she deserved, but it only seemed to get worse every day because nothing was getting better. She deserved the guilt, she deserved the pain, she deserved the looks, and she most definitely deserved Lucky's loathing; of this she has no doubts on. She knows it's her punishment for the horrible thing she did to Lucky and she bears all of it without complaint because she knows that it's only right, and it could be worse.

But that's just it **she** deserved all of those things, but her boys didn't. No matter what Lucky felt towards her, no matter how much she hated her, it shouldn't affect the way he interacted and treated the boys. They hadn't done anything wrong, and most definitely didn't deserve the complete ignorance that Lucky was giving them right now. But Lucky hadn't even as so much as called the boys; much less keep up with the planned weekend visits he was supposed to make. With each missed weekend visit she could see the look of confusion and sadness increasing on her eldest son's face.

It that night that finally her eldest son, Cameron, asked her about his daddy. He waited until it was just him and her in his room (I'm not sure if Cam and Jake have separate bedrooms or not but for now they will.) and then asked her if daddy was mad at them, and if he was what he could do to prove to daddy that he was sorry and still loved him.

It had broken her heart that her baby could ever think that it was anything he had done that had caused the man he knew as his father to act this way. She had reassured him that Lucky was not mad at him or Jake and that it was nothing they had done, but that he was having a hard time and needed to have some space till he was ok again. Her little boy nodded his head and then proceeded to climb into bed where Elizabeth tucked him in. She had kissed him on the cheek, wished him goodnight, and then proceeded to go where she was now.

She had no idea what to do. She had tried to call Lucky multiple times, which went unanswered, and had left voice mails each time begging to call her back or at least to show up this weekend for the boy's time to visit with him. Her latest call been to plead with to at least call and talk to Cameron, who missed his dad more than anything. It all seemed to be in vain, she hadn't heard anything from Lucky the entire time, not even to yell or scream at her like he had the night he found out about the affair. Her attempts to convince his family to talk to him for her were all met with resistance, Luke even going as far as to say that Lucky wasn't obligated to take care of two children who weren't even biologically his, and if he wasn't going to do it any more than that was his decision.

His words horrified her. At this point how could Lucky not be obligated? Jake was young enough that he could probably forget Lucky after a while, but Cameron had known Lucky as his father since he was an infant; he had never known another father. She prayed Lucky didn't adopt the ideology that Luke seemed to have, it would destroy her, but more importantly it would destroy her little boy's entire world. How would she tell her baby that his father no longer wanted the title? What could she say at all?

Yes she prays that Lucky doesn't think that way.

Her thoughts whirl around the horrifying idea until she finally drifts off to sleep and is confronted with nightmares of Lucky destroying what was left of their family.

* * *

Lucky looked into the now empty glass of bourbon. No matter how hard he tried he never could seem to kill the pain he felt by drowning himself in liquor. The anger and feelings of betrayal were just too strong for them to be dulled down. If anything the liquor only seemed to intensify them, which was fine by him. Why should he feel any different? His fiancé and his brother got together behind his back. He had a right to be angry. He couldn't even look at Nikolas without seeing red and the last time ended with him punching him right in the face, again. He hadn't really seen much of his slut of an ex-fiancé but he had gone out of his way to avoid her. He made sure he never came up to the hospital unless absolutely necessary, and even then he made sure she was either home or preoccupied when he did.

He didn't think he had the self-control to see her. His blood would boil at the mention of her name. He couldn't believe when she had the audacity to come to the Haunted Star to ask his family to talk to him about the boys. She had no right to ask **his** family for anything, but he had to admit he had felt some guilt when she mentioned it.

Until his dad said something he had never considered before.

He had seen the look of outrage and hurt on Elizabeth's face when Luke said that he wasn't obligated to take care of the children she had conceived with other men, and while he felt a small bit of anger at him, another part of him realized that he was right. He had no obligation to children who really weren't even his to begin with. Honestly, he wanted nothing more to do with Elizabeth and being around Cameron and Jake would make it mandatory.

He knew it was horrible but he just didn't want to have to work children that weren't his into his life any longer. How would he ever be able to start over if he had a constant reminder of what was and what had repeatedly failed? He didn't need that with him now. Elizabeth had her chance for them to live their life as a happy family and she shoved it right back in his face.

Well that was fine, but she had to live with the consequences.

* * *

Carly held her little girl closer to her, as she rocked her back to sleep. She had been so sure this morning that her Jax were going to be able to fix their marriage and be the happy family she wanted her, Morgan, Josslyn, Michael, and Jax to be. She just couldn't keep her mouth closed though. She naturally had to get all jealous when Jax started sharing his adventure with Skye to Morgan. She had been so sure he had slept with that woman; of course part of her wanted him to have so they would be even, but of course he hadn't. Then he asked her if she had slept with Sonny again and she just couldn't lie to him.

She doesn't know if she'd ever seen Jax look so defeated, so crushed. She could tell he had wanted to be back with her as much as she wanted to. If only he hadn't asked they would be in her taking care of their baby girl together.

Now she doesn't even know if their family can be fixed. They had been through so much these last five years, and she's afraid that Jax has finally reached his breaking point. He hadn't even yelled at her when she confessed, he just talked calmly but sadly, until he finally left.

Carly didn't want this to be the end. She had to convince Jax to give it one more try. After all she had really slept with Sonny months ago, it didn't change how they felt now. And it wasn't like they couldn't be good together, they did have some wonderful happy memories. Like this afternoon. She would remind him of how much fun he had today with her and Morgan and he would have to give them at least one more shot.

She knows she'll be able to convince them. She has to if she's going to keep her family together.

* * *

**AN: Alright this is the first chapter! Let me know what you guy's think. I am open to corrections and ideas so if you have any let me know!**

**Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2 The End

**I would like to thank:**

**Sashahailee and bookfreak25 for following my story/following me**

**Sashahailee,** **13Sarah94, sweetgirl23, bookfreak25, Lizbeth2003, sj, and all my guests for their reviews!**

**Someone asked if there would be any Liason interaction. I hadn't really thought about but yes there will probably be some. I always thought it was odd that Elizabeth never got upset over any of Jason's decisions. Like being godfather to Josslyn, going that extra mile and hanging around Carly's kid, and Jason's and Sam's want to have a baby right after Jake died.**

**Now obviously Jake isn't going to die, but that will only serve to aggravate the situation. As we get to a point where Jax and Elizabeth interact and become closer they will start to open up. I feel as if Elizabeth has probably held in all these emotions, so she doesn't cause unnecessary tension and because she and Jason aren't together anymore so she feels as if it is none of her business. Jax will hopefully be someone she can say these thoughts to without feeling guilty or worrying being judged.**

**And now on to the story! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own GH! If I did Alexis would've been much happier seeing Jerry because J-Lex rocks!**

**Something New**

**Chapter 2: The End**

Jax walked slowly up the walkway to the house he built for Carly and his family, when they thought that finally everything would be ok and work out. His heart was heavy with sadness, but he was still confident that he had to do this. He couldn't put Morgan and Joss through another of his and their mother's break ups. He had wanted one more chance, to see if it was meant to be, and yesterday showed him what he needed to see.

He steped up to the door and paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. Carly would not make this easy. She would fight it, be resistant at first. He had to go in with no doubts and no weaknesses. If he showed any faltering in his argument Carly would pounce on them and feed him doubts and make him second guess his decision. It would be possible too if he did doubt for a second. He couldn't just stop loving Carly, and that love could be enough to rope him back in. For as tired as he was, Jax loved his family and believed a part of him would always have wished they could've worked through this.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

* * *

She massaged her neck with her hand, trying to ease the stiffness of the muscles there. Her night on the couch had done her no favors. Her nightmares had ensured her sleep was anything but restful and only made her body sore, which made caring for two rambunctious growing boys harder. She couldn't help but smile though as she looked at her babies, even while they were destroying the house through the process of playing their Adventure Game, as Cameron named it. How could she get mad at her little boys when they using their imagination to entertain themselves and having so much fun doing it as well?

She had always loved to watch her children. Watching them grow and learn, seeing their excited faces when they learned something new. They brought so much joy into her life, and she thanked God every day that they were her children because she doesn't know what she would do without them. Some days they were the only thing that got her up in the morning, knowing they needed her, and moments like these only made it better.

There were days of course she wished she had some more grown up company. It would be nice every once in a while to have a friend to go out with, hire a baby-sitter and just have a night to herself but when she looked around Elizabeth was shocked to realize that there really wasn't anyone else around. Somehow, without her realizing, a giant chasm had grown between her and all the people she used to care about. She knew nothing of went on in anybody else's lives, not even Patrick and Robin who she worked with and had a child like she did. She had somehow become totally separate from Port Charles.

It shocked her but she really didn't see what all she could do about it. With Lucky nowhere to be seen and Elizabeth, when she wasn't working, spent all her time looking after her boys. She used to use Lucky's weekends as a chance to get together with her friends, relax, and rest up for when the boys came home. Without that break Elizabeth had no time for herself.

She sighed. "Oh what am I complaining about? I have to healthy, wonderful boys. What else do I need?" Besides her isolation might be warranted. What she had done to Lucky had truly been horrible.

* * *

He only had to wait a minute before the door was opened and revealed Carly standing there holding their beautiful daughter in her arms.

"Hey, Sweetheart." He couldn't look away from his daughter. It was almost too much, almost enough to make him change his mind. The thought of not being able to see her every day was agonizing.

Carly stood back from the door to let him in.

"She slept really great last night. I bet it had something to do with seeing here daddy again." She said as she followed him to the couch, settling Josslyn in her arms. She then looked at him expectantly.

Jax felt his lips twitch up in a brief smile. Of course Carly expected this conversation and she was prepared to fight. She didn't plan on letting him go and she would use every weapon in her disposal to keep him here.

"Carly we have to talk." He kept his tone quiet but serious. He didn't want this to turn into a fight or a screaming match.

She adjusted Josslyn angling her closer to him, attempting to melt his heart and resolve.

"I know. I know we have a lot to get through Jax, but I know we can work through it. We can fix this and then we can raise our family together and happily like we've always wanted to."

Jax felt the ache he felt the day before come back. It was a pain that was almost unbearable, and he knew that even if he had wanted to try again, he couldn't.

"I can't" he said softly.

* * *

Jax's voice had never sounded so broken to Carly before, and those to words held more anguish in them then she would've ever thought possible. She thought it would just be a matter of convincing him that their family still stood a chance. That even though there attempts had failed in the past, this time it could work; everything was out in the open and they could truly start over. She thought it would be just working him through the inevitable feeling of anger and betrayal he had, and then gradually moving on. But it wasn't that simple she could see that now. Jax wasn't angry. He wasn't here to yell or scream at her.

"What do you meant you can't Jax!? This is our family! What? You're just going to give up on us? Just going to abandon us Jax!? Are we not enough anymore. Or now that you have Josslyn you know longer want to play family with the rest of us! Is that what this is?!"

She didn't know why she was saying this to him. She knew it wasn't true, knew Jax truly loved Morgan and Michael like his own children, knew that he loved her; and yet she couldn't stop.

Jax stood up.

"Don't you dare Carly. You know I love those boys as if they were my own. Hell I was willing to adopt Morgan when you wanted nothing to do with Sonny. I love Morgan and Michael. I love you, Carly; but...I can't do it again."

And that was it. Carly knew it the moment he spoke those first two words. It wasn't that he didn't love them or need them or want them. After all these years, after everything they had been through, after everything **she** done to him; Jax had finally reached his limit.

"Carly I love you and the kids, but this isn't healthy, we aren't good together anymore. We've tried to put our family back together since before we ever even got married. I know there have been good times and that's why we need to end this now. End it so we **can** fix our family. If we try to stay together all we'll end up doing is hurting each other Carly, and I don't think we can survive another break."

She wanted to keep screaming at him, accuse him of not caring, yell at him for being so calm and making it seem like it was so easy for him to say these things. All it took was one look in his eyes, to see all that pain and sadness, and she stopped being angry. It wasn't easy for him to say these things, she didn't even think he wanted to, but he felt that he was right and though it hurt him if it would keep their family together, Carly knows he would do anything. She also knew she should be trying to make this easier for him, for them, but she didn't want to let him go.

"But I love you Jax."

He had known Carly would be resistant, but he wished this once she would just listen.

"Sometimes love isn't enough Carly. Sometimes you can love someone and still be bad for them. You say you want our family to stay whole? Carly this is the only way. We have to learn how to say goodbye and let go of each other for the sake of our family. Morgan and Josslyn deserve better than two parents who are constantly fighting, breaking up, and then getting back together, only for them to break up again. They need stability. Sometimes the only way to keep something together is to separate."

He saw her shake her head and bite her lip. She was hurt and when Carly was hurt she became angry. He admired her for attempting to control herself, for resisting her usual reactions.

"But why Jax!? Why now after all this time? What made you draw the line this time? Why do you think that we are doomed to fail? We've been through so much and made it through so much. How can you call it quits now?"

Her voice showed her hurt and her confusion. She really didn't understand and Jax didn't want to hurt her. And the truth would.

"Carly…"

She took a step towards him, having put Josslyn down in her pin a while ago.

"No Jax something must have changed. You don't just decide one day that you don't want to be with the people you claim are your family. No either something's changed or your lying and you really are just trying to find a way to abandon a family that maybe you realized you don't really want anymore. Is that it Jax!? Being a dad too hard for you now? Too much work!?"

She was yelling now, and with every word Jax could feel his anger rise.

"Come on Jax admit it after all this time, after claiming all you wanted was a family, of wanting a child of your own, you've realized it's too much to handle. Come on Jax! Admit it! Admit it you coward!"

Her last words sent him over the edge.

"You want the truth Carly? Fine. The truth is…"

And he hesitated for a second, not because of uncertainty, but because he didn't want to say these next words. Because it was the truth and it hurt to admit it.

"Carly, I love you and I always will. You're the mother of my children, how could I not? But the truth is I don't _want_ to be in love with you anymore. Somehow our love has just become another way to hurt one another. I don't want to be in a relationship like this any longer for both of our sakes. Both of us deserve a better relationship than the one we have now. I don't want to say this, but loving you hurts."

He saw her shocked, hurt expression, and felt guilt rise up. He hadn't wanted to do this to her, but she wanted the truth and that's what he gave her.

With tears in her eyes she whispered "I know".

He's sure he's the one with the shocked expression now. Of all the things he expected he never thought she would agree.

She wiped her eyes.

"You're right."

She sat back down on the couch and put her head in her hands. "I know you're right I feel it to. I love you so much but it's wrapped up with so much pain, so much history. I just don't want to say goodbye to you Jax. I don't want you to leave our lives. Morgan and Joss need you. They need a father that will love them no matter what. They need a father present in their lives. I'm just afraid that if we separate they won't have that."

Jax could feel his heart breaking into pieces. He wished this didn't hurt so much. But he could make promises to her. Promises he could keep.

He wiped the tears away from her eyes.

"I don't plan on going anywhere Carly. I mean I'll be moving out of the house, but it's not as if I'm leaving Port Charles. We'll work out an arrangement for me to come and pick up Morgan and Joss, and I still plan on going to all the events, sports, plays, anything they need me to be at. The only difference will be I won't be here and we won't be together. And we'll see less of each other. But I promise you I am not abandoning our family. I'll ways be here for them and if they need anything I'll be there to give it to them."

He meant every word. He would not be some dead beat who didn't take care of his family. Jax would do everything he could to give them the most loving, caring family and make sure they had everything they could ever need.

"What about me?" she asked.

He closed his eyes.

"I think it would be best if for a while we limited our contact with one another. We have to have time to move on; we have to give ourselves time not to be in love with each other. Or at least let some time pass so we can be in the same room without feeling a sense of pain or loss. It could take time."

A few more tears made their way down her face. He never imagined something could hurt so much. A part of him wanted to just take it all back, anything to make the pain go away, but he knew this was right.

Carly nodded her head.

"So I guess this is goodbye?"

He knew with every word her heart was shattering because so was his. He nods his head, not trusting his voice.

Tears slowly cascaded down her face as they made their way to the door.

Carly leaned in to him and Jax can't refuse her that one last kiss. It was brief but it conveyed just as much as any of their most passionate kisses had.

"Goodbye Jax."

It was almost too much. How could one word cause so much pain?

He swallowed.

"Goodbye Carly."

And with those last words Jax left, something inside broken beyond repair.

* * *

He took the bottle of bourbon out of his son's hands. Lucky had been drinking far too much these last couple of months. He understood that the he needed time to grieve after finding his brother was sleeping with his fiancé, but that time had come and gone now. Lucky needed to move on with his life, and more importantly he needed to let go of this anger. He knew that what had been done to Lucky was horrible, but this unending anger would get him nowhere.

"Sorry Cowboy but you've had enough of this to last you for the next twenty years. Now if you would like some water I'd be happy to accommodate you, but I'm cutting you off on the alcohol."

Lucky just barely glared at him, too drunk to really do much but sit in his seat.

"Who are you to judge how much I drink?"

Even in the drunken state the anger was prominent in his tone.

"Since I've decided that I don't want to see my son drink himself into in early grave."

Lucky just grumbled.

"Besides I've been meaning to talk to you about something."

When Elizabeth had come in asking him to talk to Lucky on her behalf he had given her a very difficult time. After all she was the main reason Lucky was in this state to begin with. And when he found out that it was over children that weren't even really Lucky's he had scoffed and brushed her off. He was still angry and thought she was just using the children as an excuse to see Lucky and beg for his forgiveness.

It wasn't until she had never come back after that he started to believe differently, and when he thought back he had to admit that she had looked rather exhausted. He knew what he had said was horrible but he only thought she was using them. He didn't want her trapping Lucky. It was clear now that she wasn't. She had given Lucky his space. She understood what she had done and excepted what it meant.

That meant he had been wrong.

He remembered Elizabeth's shocked when he said Lucky didn't have obligations to her children. His words had hurt her. He had taken satisfaction out of that then, but now, looking at Lucky, he knew he never should have said it. Lucky needed those children.

Lucky looked up at him. His eyes held some suspicion. Maybe he knew where this conversation was headed.

"I understand you're upset Cowboy, but all of this drinking isn't doing you any favors and you have obligations to attend to. People that need you."

Lucky snorted. "Yeah right. And who would that be?"

"Lucky you have two little boys right now sitting at home wondering where their father is. They don't know or understand what's happened between you and Elizabeth. All they know was one day you were there and the next you were gone. Those boys need you."

Lucky let out a short dark laugh.

"That's not what you told Elizabeth. If I remember correctly you said I was hardly obligated to take care of and father to children who belong to two different men. That if I didn't want to play daddy anymore that was **my** decision."

Luke felt a pit form in his stomach.

"I was angry."

"You didn't sound angry."

"I was wrong."

"I'm not so sure."

Luke felt as if a ball of ice had implanted itself into his stomach.

"Excuse me?"

Lucky shrugged his shoulders.

"I think you had a point. Cam and Jake aren't mine so why should I go out of my way to be a father to them? Honestly they only get in the way and makes it practically impossible for me to move on. I mean who wants to date someone who has two children from another relationship."

Luke was shocked. He never thought Lucky would ever feel that way. Oh god this was his entire fault.

"Lucky children aren't just objects. You can't just give them back when you get tired of them. You're the only father those boys have ever known. You can't just stop!"

He was trying to do damage control, but he feared it was far too late.

Lucky stood up.

"You know what? That isn't my problem anymore"

And with that Lucky left the Haunted Star.

Oh God what had he done.

"Elizabeth I'm so sorry."

* * *

**Alright! That's the end of Chapter 2! Let me know what you guys think! Update will be up ASAP  
**


	3. Chapter 3 The Fallout

**AN: I would like to thank:**

**Lizbeth2003, trini12180,** **bjq ,****sashahailee, Kimmy123, sj, and all my guests for their reviews.**

**bjq, Ninlil, 13Sarah94, Kimmy123 for following my story.**

**I'm so excited for today's episode of GH. After a year Jax is finally coming back to the show, and now we'll have both Jacks brothers on the show! (Insert fangirl squeal of delight)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own GH. **

**Something New**

**Chapter 3: The Fallout**

He ran up the stairs and into his room, quickly looking for the clothes Mommy had laid out. She had just told him that she would take him and Jake to the park today. He was so happy! He loved going to the park. He loved showing Jake everything too! He had asked Mommy if Spencer would be there, he loved playing with Spencer and playing with three was always way more fun, but she said that no, he wouldn't be there.

Cameron was a little sad after hearing that. He was a little confused too. They used to hang out with Spencer and Uncle Nikolas all the time, but it felt like it had been forever since the last time. They don't even go over to Uncle Nikolas's castle anymore.

They don't do a lot of things that they used to.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairs in then hurried to change into his play clothes. Mommy had laid out his favorite black shirt with the really cool dragon on it and his favorite, most comfortable blue jeans.

"Cameron honey?" she said as she entered his room, Jake in her arms. "Are you ready to go sweetheart?"

She smiled down at him and he nodded his head.

"Yeah, but can I ask a question first?"

She came closer and sat on the bed putting Jake in her lap. "Sure baby. What is it?"

"How come we don't ever see Uncle Nikolas or Spencer anymore? I miss them."

He watched as Mommy bit her lip and weird expression come over her face. She seemed sad. Like when he asks about Daddy. He didn't want Mommy to be sad. She was the bestest Mommy in the world.

"I know baby. Uncle Nikolas has just been really busy this summer. He had to do a lot of traveling. But you know what maybe when his schedule calms down he'll bring over Spencer and you boys can have a sleep over. What do you think about that."

She was smiling again. Good. He hated when Mommy was sad.

"That sounds great!"

"Alright now that is settled, who's ready to go to the park?"

"Me!" Jake yelled from their mother's arm.

"Me too! Let's go, go, go!" he said.

His Mommy laughed.

"Alright then."

At least now he knew why they hadn't seen Spencer. But why had that made mommy sad? Maybe she just missed Uncle Nikolas too? Oh well at least they'll have fun at the park. Maybe Daddy will be there too!

He hoped so. Cameron _really_ missed his Daddy.

* * *

Morgan sat down on the couch and looked up at his mother. Her puffy eyes told Morgan she had been crying. God, he bet her and Jax had another fight. Jeez why couldn't they just get along and be happy for once? Why did they always have to do this? Morgan wished they would just make up their minds. It was exhausting. He never knew anymore whether he would still have a step-father by the time morning rolled around.

He has a feeling though what his mom is going to say and he doesn't want to hear it. He didn't want Jax to be gone. Jax had been amazing. He had taught Morgan so many of the things he knew now; he had really been more of a stand in father to him. He taught him all the things a father taught their sons.

"Morgan I have to tell you something and I need you to just listen for a minute ok? This is very important."

She looks at him and he nods his head.

"While you were at your friend's house yesterday, Jax and I had a long talk and we came to a decision."

He held his breath.

"I want you to understand that does not affect the way that Jax feels for you or that it will change anything. Jax loves you and Josslyn more than anything in this entire world, Morgan. There isn't anything he wouldn't do for you two."

She took a deep breath.

"Jax and I have decided to end our marriage."

For a moment everything felt frozen, as if his brain couldn't quite process what she was saying. And then all at once it hit him. That was it. Jax was gone.

"Why?" he croaked. His throat was closing up and he could feel tears in his eyes which he furiously tried to keep back.

She scooted closer and hugged him.

"Baby I'm so sorry. I know it hurts, but it's like I said. Nothing is really going to change."

He jerked back, out of her arms.

"How can you say that!? Everything is going to be different!"

He felt so angry, so hurt. He felt as if a part of his world was being destroyed.

"I know this is hard to understand right now Morgan, but we had to do this. We had to do what was best for you and Josslyn. I know it upset you every time Jax and I have broken up, and I know you hated us fighting. That's why we made this decision. We love you. We love Josslyn. We love each other. But sometimes you can love someone and still hurt each other. We didn't want to do that anymore. We didn't want to hurt our family anymore. We talked about it. You and Joss need stability. Jax and I constantly breaking up and getting back together like we have hurt everyone and disrupted that stability."

"But why couldn't you work it out? Why do you guys have to separate? Why can't Jax stay?"

He couldn't help the few tears that escaped his eyes.

"Oh baby. Jax isn't going anywhere. He's staying right here in Port Charles. He won't be at the house but he plans on doing all the same things he did when he lived her with us. The only difference will be you'll spend some time here and some of your time with Jax. Jax would never abandon you. He loves you. You are a son to him."

He felt himself calming down a bit. A part of him had feared Jax was going to leave and they'd never seen him again, or worse (and closer to his true fears) he was afraid mom, out of anger, wasn't going to let him see Jax. That she would stop him from going to their activities and cause fights with him for wanting to see them, like she would do with Dad.

It still hurt knowing that Jax wouldn't be here at the house anymore, that he would be a part of their family in a different way. He was comforted though, and though it sucked, he could deal with the divorce as long as what his mom said was true.

His mom came back and hugged him and they sat like that for a few minutes. She held him tight in her arms.

"Are you going to be ok?" she asked her voice thick.

He nodded his head though he still had a few tears.

"I mean I'm far from happy and I'm not a hundred percent ok, but I just need some time to think. How come Jax isn't here telling me this to."

She looked down.

"Jax is always going to be here for his kids, but we need space from each other. I'm sure if I'd asked he would've been here, but I thought it was better to get it over with quick."

He doesn't exactly agree, and he doesn't exactly understand, but there isn't much he can do about it. He needed some time to himself. He needed to be alone to think.

"I'm just going to go upstairs."

He gave his mom one last hug and then went upstairs.

He had to somehow wrap his head around the fact that his entire world had just changed.

* * *

"And when exactly was this project due Kristina?"

She was exasperated. Kristina, who was grounded, had just informed her that she had a project due for science and needed to go to the park. As part of her punishment for her latest stunt she wasn't allowed to go anywhere by herself. She had snuck out of the house and Alexis had caught her sneaking back in the following morning.

She had a feeling this was all a ploy. Kristina knew she had to get to work and knew that if she said it was school related that Alexis would cave.

Kristina smiled sheepishly. "Uhh…a couple of weeks?"

Alexis felt her mouth drop open.

"A couple of weeks! Kristina! What are you doing? You know how important your studies are and that you make good grades. Honestly what are you thinking? How do you plan on creating a decent, presentable project in two days?"

Kristina arms dropped down from their folded position in front of her, to her sides. She had a look of outrage on her face, and she shook her head.

"Oh my god mom! It's not even that difficult of a project it'll take like two hours! I don't understand why you always have to make such a big deal about everything! I wish for two seconds you stop trying to control my life and let me do what I want to! You freak out about every little thing! I don't even see what the big deal is."

It took all her strength not to just scream. Some days she just wanted to bang her head against the door. Kristina was in full, bratty teenage mode and nothing was going to get in her way. Everything right now was about her and anything said was taken like a personal attack. She loved her daughter, but she couldn't wait for this phase to pass.

"Kristina the "big deal" is that you refuse to be responsible. Sneaking out of the house, not doing school work, you're almost 18 and yet you refuse to act like it. And what am I supposed to do? I have to go to work and you are grounded. You know you can't go anywhere without supervision, so what exactly am I supposed to do?"

Just as Kristina opens her mouth to retort, most likely to come up with some reason as to why she could trust her to go to the park by herself, a voice sounded from her door.

"Maybe I could help out there?"

She looked and saw Jax, looking a little awkward at having interrupted their argument.

She shook her head as walked over to the table to grab her purse.

"No there is no reason for you to do that. I'm sure you have important matters to deal with yourself."

"Well I do need to talk to you, but if you need to get going I can take Kristina to the park and help her with her project, and we can talk when you get home."

Now she wished she hadn't insisted on that ten o'clock meeting. She knew there was a reason. Damn.

She stepped closer to him. Upon closer examination she could tell Jax didn't look all that good. Alexis couldn't remember a time she had seen him look that exhausted.

"Is everything ok?"

Jax shook his head.

"Yeah everything'll be fine. We'll talk more when you get back. Unless you object to me taking Kristina to the park?"

She walked up to him and gave him a hug.

"If you don't mind. I really appreciate it. Have I ever told you what an amazing friend you are?"

He smiled.

"Yes I think you have, but there's no harm in saying it again."

Jax really was an amazing man. She was sure this had something to do with Carly. It was always Carly. Honestly, Alexis doesn't know how he had done it all these years. All Carly ever did was take, take, take. She took everything she could from Jax and gave nothing back.

She kissed him on the cheek said thank you and the hurried out the door.

* * *

Elizabeth sat back against the tree and watched her boys. They had been playing hide-and-seek with a huge group of kids before coming over and wanting to eat lunch. They both had smiles and were talking and playing with each other while they were. And she was finally able to somewhat relax and just enjoy the day. It felt so nice.

It was the perfect the day to go to the park.

"See! I told you that wasn't the right flower. The flower I need has three leaves on the stem this one only has two!" said a voice from behind her.

She looked around the tree to see a very irate looking Kristina and a very tired looking Jax staring at a flower.

"Why does it matter how many leaves it has?" the voice of her youngest child asked.

She heard him move up behind her, Cameron quickly following.

"Yeah! And why are you having to look at flowers anyway?"

Elizabeth sat back curious herself, though she was more curious about why Jax was with her.

Kristina stood back up (she had been kneeling to see how many leaves there were) and walked over.

"I don't really know about the leaves, my guess would be that it changes what kind of flower it is or something. As for why I'm doing it my evil AP Bio teacher is making us do it. It really isn't all that hard. It's just time-consuming."

Cameron face lit up with excitement.

"Ok. Well maybe we could help you look?"

"Yeah we see all sorts of flowers here all the time!"

Kristina looked up at her, silently asking her permission.

She smiled at her boys. She didn't see why they couldn't. It would give them something new to do and they loved to be helpful. Besides it would give her a chance to talk to Jax, find out why he was here with Kristina and maybe what was wrong with him; he looked so tired. If nothing else it would give him a chance to rest.

"If it's ok with Kristina I'm ok just make sure you stay with her at all times boys."

They ran off in hurry, grabbing Kristina by the hand and pointing to every flower. She heard Kristina laugh and then they were out of sight. Jax made to follow but she waved at him over.

"Go ahead and sit down. Kristina's old enough to watch the boy's for a little while. Besides Cameron and Jake move at a speed that could rival the Flash along with a never-ending supply of energy; they would wear you out."

He smiled gratefully came to sit down next to her and leaning up against the trunk of the tree. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back and let out a huge sigh. And with that one release of air Jax seemed to age ten years. He looked so exhausted.

"Thanks. I hadn't really intended to go, well anywhere today. I was going to go talk to Alexis and then after that go back to…to Carly's place and grab some stuff to take to the hotel. Alexis had a meeting to get too though and Kristina needed to work on a school project, so here I am"

Elizabeth felt her heart swell with sympathy. No matter what she thought about Carly she knew Jax loved her. It was clear in the way had always talked about her. He would get that tone and his eyes would just have that look. He loved Carly, and she knows that even if it was his decision to end their marriage that it hurt just as deeply. It didn't stop that love you felt.

She turned her body so she was facing him.

"Jax I am _so_ sorry. I know you love Carly."

He looked right at her, his sorrow and pain showing so clearly in his blue eyes.

"Yeah, I do. And yet it's never seemed to be enough. I put everything I had into our relationship and yet…I just wasn't enough. And I can't do it anymore. I can't be the one gives everything, who has to give up everything. I just can't. Carly isn't willing to let go of the toxic things in her life and she won't put me first. Even if we could have worked through everything I would have always have been third in her life. I'm her husband, the one she said she wanted to be with, and yet I can't even be put ahead of two thugs."

His voice was so defeated, so full of pain. Elizabeth never thought she could ever dislike Carly more than she already did, but she a whole new rage blossom inside of her. She had always thought Carly had been too selfish to really appreciate the wonderful, sweet, caring man that Jax was. Sure he had made his fair share of mistakes, but he could at least admit it when he was wrong, and he would never do the things Carly had done to him. He shouldn't have to beg for his wife's love. Carly should have given it freely.

She wondered if they would truly be over. She believed looking at Jax that he was through, that he wanted this relationship to be done with; he didn't look like he could take much more. That didn't mean Carly would let him leave. Even though she had already sucked him dry she would still fight, still want to hold on until Jax had absolutely nothing left to give.

It was the kind of person she was.

"And you're sure it's over? For both of you? And are you absolutely sure you don't want to work things out? I mean you do have a child together and there's Morgan to think about to."

She wanted him to be sure. If Carly wasn't on board with divorce, Elizabeth would be surprised if she was and even if she was now, that doesn't mean she won't change her mind later. Looking at Jax, she agreed that divorce was the best course of action, but if he was going to stick with it he needed to be sure and have good reasons to remind Carly.

It would be the first thing she would use to rope him back in, her children.

Jax took a deep breath and looked out over the park. She wondered what he was thinking about. She wondered if he had memories here with his family.

"I love Josslyn and I consider Morgan my son, they're part of the reason I decided that Carly and I needed to divorce. It wasn't fair or healthy for them to have to go through us constantly breaking up and getting back together."

He stopped for a moment, and then turned back to look at her.

"You know it's crazy two days ago I thought I was finally going to be able to go home and be together with my family. And now it's over. Not that I plan on abandoning my children, but we aren't going to be the family we were. It's hard and harder still because I still love Carly. Nothing has changed and yet everything has. Carly and I talked about all of this yesterday, and it all made sense then and I was much calmer, but now…"

She understood. She really did. She'd been there with Lucky. Their relationship had been just as toxic and needed to end. Only in the end she had let Lucky back in and look what that had done. She wouldn't let Jax make that same mistake. It destroyed her family, and Jax loved his too much, she couldn't let him go through that.

"Now it's more real. Before it was just a thought a plan, and even after it was decided you were still just running on adrenaline and it hadn't had time to sink in. I know. I understand. I went through the same thing with Lucky, and for what it's worth Jax I believe you're making the right decision."

* * *

He hadn't realized how nice it would be to hear someone say that. Someone to just agree with him. He was so used to having to put up a fight and defend what he was doing he had forgotten how nice it was for someone to just really understand.

He really shouldn't be surprised though. Elizabeth had always been level-headed and she had always been incredibly understanding, and when he needed to talk to someone she never minded. True those times had been few and far between, but the point was she never had to in the first place. Somehow he managed to make a friend out of her, and he felt bad now knowing he had never really returned her for her kindness or even tried to know her better.

"Thank you that means more than you even know. How is Lucky? I don't know if I ever really apologized for the strain I put your relationship, but I am sorry. And for kind of being a jerk, and little crazy."

She laughed and waved his apology away. She was always so incredibly forgiving. There was some pain behind her eyes though. He wondered if he brought up a sore subject. Perhaps this could be a chance to help her out like she had tried to do for him in the past.

"Jax don't be silly that was so long ago, it's all water under the bridge. Besides when your children are involved is there really such a thing as being too concerned. Your concerns were valid, and it was just your methods of going about things that were the problem. Like I said though, it's all water under the bridge."

"I'm glad to hear it. How are you and Lucky anyway? How come he isn't here? I would've thought he'd love to spend this time with the boys."

Guilt rose as he saw the raw pain that filled her eyes, but he quickly became concerned when the pain turned her own mixture of guilt and something else to.

"Elizabeth is everything alright?"

He became even more concerned as tears started to form in her eyes and she looked away from him.

"Hey. I'm sorry I wasn't trying to bring up anything painful. I didn't realize had bad things had gotten. Is there anything I can do?"

She flinched away from him then and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"That's sweet Jax, but there's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do. This…"

Tears were streaming down her face, and the pain in her eyes was so great. Jax wondered how long she had held it all end. He figured for a while considering the way she was breaking down.

Even as she was completely breaking down she was still trying to keep herself together. She was wiping furiously at her tears, trying to fight the sobs that were coming up. It broke Jax's heart to see her in so much anguish.

"Hey. Look it's ok look I'm sure no matter what it is it can be fixed."

He reached out to put his hand on her, to try to comfort her somehow but as soon as he touched her she flinched away.

"Don't Jax. You have no idea what I've done! I…God it's nothing compared to what Carly has ever done to you. I'm a horrible person! What I've done to Lucky can never be forgiven, and I have no right to be. And because of my stupid, selfish mistakes I've ruined my family. I've probably ruined everything and you want to know the worst part? Because of my decisions, my horrible choices, I might've hurt and destroyed my children's world Jax. And I know that I deserve everything coming to me, but my boys are innocent. They have never done anything to anyone. They don't deserve to be punished for my mistakes."

The last part was said in a whisper and while she had stood up to yell at him, which he didn't hold against her, she sat back down and curled into herself, hugging hear knees while burying her head in them, sobs wracking her body.

He sat shocked for a moment. He didn't know what to think. Apparently a lot had happened that he didn't know about. But surely she was over exaggerating? I mean Carly had done some pretty awful things, not all done to him of course but still.

"Elizabeth I'm sure it isn't all that…"

"I was engaged to Lucky and I slept with Nikolas." She said quietly but spitefully.

That stopped him short.

"Oh."

She nodded her head and finally looked up at him. He was shocked again at how much self-loathing was there. She truly hated herself for what she had done. And even if he wanted to be disgusted or angry or any of the other emotions she wanted him to feel towards her, he couldn't. She was punishing herself enough, and Jax thought she was being too harsh on herself.

"Do you see now? I appreciate you trying to comfort me but I don't deserve it. I just wish my boys weren't suffering."

He scooted closer to her and leaned against the tree again reclining back against it. She may have wanted him to go away, she may believe she deserved whatever it is Lucky and whoever were doing to her, but Jax didn't and he planned on showing and proving it to her.

"Well I can already tell you that on one account you couldn't be more wrong, or at least not totally right."

Her head shot up and she looked at him shocked. Did she really think he would leave her like this?

"You are not a horrible person and Carly had definitely done worse. I can tell you that Carly has cheated on me many times since we've been married, and I know she never once has ever felt as guilty as you have. Not even if you added all the guilt up together. You know why? Because Carly was never really sorry that she slept with Sonny. I believe she was sorry she got caught and that it hurt me and our family but never because of what she did. And I can tell you do Elizabeth. I can tell by the way you say every word. If you were this horrible person you claimed you were you wouldn't have cared that it was your _actions_ that is what hurt the people you care about. You feel horrible, guilty which is understandable and expected but I doubt this is your entire fault. And I think Lucky and those around you have forgotten exactly what Lucky has done to you."

She shook her head. "If you're talking about the Maxie thing don't. I did the same thing he did. He slept with Maxie so I slept with Jason. If you go by that we're even."

Jax couldn't help the snort of disbelief that came from that statement. That sure as hell hadn't evened up the score. If you tallied Lucky's transgressions and Elizabeth's Jax know he'd find Lucky more than outweigh Elizabeth.

"Lucky didn't just sleep with Maxie. First of all he slept with her multiple times right? Then before you found that out, he stole pills, almost got you killed because he was too busy being high, almost let Manny get away because he was high, accused you having multiple affairs mostly with Patrick Drake, I mean I could go on for days, and that's just one small month period."

She opened her mouth to argue and he held up his hand.

"My only point is that Lucky's not some poor innocent victim."

She opened her mouth again, this time her face a little angry, but he held up one finger.

"Look just answer me one question. Just one. OK?"

Her eyes narrowed and she reluctantly nodded her head.

"You said you couldn't tell Lucky that you didn't want to be with him. Why?"

Her eyes opened in surprise and she opened her mouth for a quick retort and then closed it again. And he saw that pained expression come back.

Jax has a feeling he knows why. It really wasn't that hard when you looked at all her past actions and all her past reasons for hiding things from Lucky.

She opened her mouth a resigned expression on her face.

"I didn't think he would handle it well."

Jax couldn't help the small triumphant smile that graced his face.

"I know. And **your **concerns were valid in the point. Lucky has never been strong. You have always had to hide things from him because he would get too depressed, or too upset, or he might fall off the wagon. Lucky, through his own faults, has made it impossible for you to be honest with him. Because he probably wouldn't have handled you denying him. He probably would've guilt you into a relationship if you had. That's just the way Lucky is. It's not your fault. And this entire ordeal isn't just your fault. If nothing else Nikolas should have some blame after all it takes two to tango."

He saw a small smile break across her face and couldn't helped the slightly bigger one that reappeared on his. Not everything was better, not by a long shot, but at least she was listening. His smile dimmed slightly when he remembered something else she had said.

"What did you mean when you said that your decisions had hurt your sons? Is he treating them badly? Because I don't care if what you've done he has no right to hold it against them. They are only children."

She looked away and while he still saw the guilt there was plenty of anger there too. It changed her whole demeanor. She was focusing on that anger right now. It was very similar to the poses she had taken with him during the surrogacy when she felt he had over stepped his bounds. It reminded him of a battle pose which, considering the circumstances, probably wasn't all that far from the truth.

"I wish he would at least come by to see them. I haven't seen him around here at all in almost seven months. He neglected all of his weekends, he hasn't even called them to make sure they're ok and see how they are. And I don't understand it and I don't know what to tell them and it hurts to see. Honestly I think Jake forgets more and more about Lucky every day. He doesn't even ask for his daddy anymore. But Cameron asks me every night when they will get to see daddy again and I don't know what to say anymore Jax because I don't know! I can't even tell him for sure where Lucky is because I haven't seen him. He's avoiding me fine! But he's avoiding my children and that's not ok and I don't know what to do because nobody will help me because they're all mad at me! Me! Not one them seems to care about the children he's supposed to be a father to!"

Now see that was the perfect thing to be disgusted by. You don't just raise children for their entire lives and then neglect them as punishment; for any reason. He didn't care if it was punishment for what they did or for someone else did it was never Ok and it was absolutely despicable.

"Let me go talk to him then."

She stepped towards him, hand waving in front of her to say it wasn't necessary.

"Jax really you've done more than you ever had to. Besides you don't want to get involved in this mess you have your own issues with Carly that you have to get worked out. You shouldn't be distracted with dealing with my messes."

She was always independent, so head strong. He was surprised she managed to stay single for so long. She was beautiful, she was smart, she had a strong personality, compassionate; she deserved someone better than Lucky Spencer that was for sure. Then again she was probably careful because of her boys, another quality to add; a great mother. He was sure she would make some guy very happy and hoped for her sake that it was one that deserved her.

"It'll be no trouble at all, besides I don't know if I trust Lucky to be decent with you. I hear he's already decked Nikolas twice, and from what I remember he's always had a bit of an anger problem."

She shook her head and pursed her lips.

"Jax…" her tone chiding.

"Please it'll make me feel better. And you've helped me out so many times in the past just let me help you this once."

She shook her head but smiled.

"Whatever. I think you're being totally ridiculous but if it will make you feel better, and get this crazy notion out of your head that you owe me something then go ahead."

He leaned closer to her and put his hand on her soldier.

"Thank you. It really will make me feel better. And thank you for listening to me about Carly and everything. I needed to talk about it I think. And you make a wonderful third-party, you never judge, you just let me talk and that's impressive because I know you can't stand Carly and that it would be easy to bash her while you were talking to me and you didn't and I it means a lot."

She rolled her eyes at him, a smile blossomed on her face, her eyes containing happiness which made them shine.

"It's no problem though I think you did more listening to my problems."

Her face turned more serious but it didn't diminish her happiness.

"Really Jax, I can't thank you enough for listening, and…and making me see things differently. And for letting me break down in front of you. Most men would've just have found a quick exit route, so thank you for sticking around and trying to get through to me. If you ever need to talk again Jax all you have to do is stop by the house, or call. If you need anything just ask."

Jax leaned back and thought for a second. There was one thing she could do.

"Actually there is something you could do for me, if you don't mind"

"Yeah, sure."

"Please don't ever let yourself that close to breaking down again. I mean don't hold it for so long ok. Friendships are a two-way street. You can come to me to talk if you need to as well."

Her smile brightened and her eyes shone with thankfulness.

"Hmmm…I think I can do that."

He smiled back. "Good."

"Look there it is! There's the last flower it's right underneath Mommy! Mommy don't move or you'll squish it!"

Her youngest son ran over and then stopped right in front of her, slowly kneeling down and then softly pulling up the purple flower right between her feet. He held it up in front of him triumphantly before turning to Kristina (who had just caught up) and handing it to her with "Here you go" whispered as if he was afraid if he talked to loud something would happen to the flower.

"Thank you Jake! Whew! We finally finished"

She gave them both a high-five and then thanked them both.

"Thank you Mrs. Webber for letting them help me. You know I find it surprising that a six and three-year old had an easier time of it than you did Jax" she said in a teasing tone.

"Well it's not my fault the flowers are all the way down there and I'm all the way up here!" his voice with a joking affronted tone.

"Well I guess we better get going. I'm sure mom's done with her meeting and I do need to talk to her. It was great to see you again Elizabeth.

He smiled and she smiled back.

"Same here. Let me know how the thing with Lucky goes."

He nodded and waved and then headed to the car with Kristina.

Lucky had better hope he had a better reason than punishing Elizabeth as his reason for staying away from her sons.

* * *

**Wow! I can't believe I wrote that much. Let me know what you guys think! Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4 Revealings

**AN: Thank you to:**

**bookfreak25, sashahailee, krissy07, sweetgirl23, Kimmy123, 13Sarah94, and all the guests for reviewing  
**

**elin2002 for following my story  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own GH.  
**

**Something New**

**Chapter 4: Revealings  
**

Alexis looked at Jax. To her surprise he was looking much better. He still looked a bit tired, but he no longer had that completely worn down look.

"Well you look a lot better. That must have been some trip to the park. I hope Kristina didn't give you any problems."

Jax rolled his eyes and smiled.

"No everything went fine. It was really a nice day to go to the park, and Kristina actually enjoyed herself quite a bit. I think it was exactly what I needed too."

She had a feeling she was missing something, but the small smile he sported made her reluctant to push the subject. Some things were just personal, and from how he looked earlier Jax needed all the happiness he could get right now. She'd just ask later. For now it was time for business.

"So you said you needed my help for something. Now I'm going to jump out on a limb here and say that it probably has something to do with Carly."

She watched Jax take a deep breath and her concern shot up, and yet at the same time she was relieved. She really hoped that Jax was here for what she thought he was. He was so unhappy with Carly.

"Carly and I are getting a divorce, and I needed to ask you for some advice."

"Ok, what is it?"

She was curious. If he had wanted her to represent him he would've lead with that, not that she could exactly blame him for not. She hadn't handled herself well or been the objective lawyer Jax had wanted her to be the last time they had decided to get a divorce.

"I know Carly is going to go to Jason and ask if Diane can draw up the divorce papers, or at the least represent her. Could I trust Diane to be…fair? Or is she going to try and put everything in Carly's favor. Not that I'm trying to take anything away from Carly or anything like that, but I don't want there to be any issues, especially regarding Morgan and Josslyn."

That was Jax always concerned with taking care of others. Of course he was going to want to make this as easy on Carly as possible, as if she deserved it. But she could also understand him wanting to get this over with as quick as possible. Though it wasn't as severe, that tired look was back on his face, and she realized that he needed this to be done with. He needed to be free of Carly. The faster this divorce went through the quicker Jax could move on and start to let go of Carly.

"I'm going to give you my opinion as your friend and as an attorney. I honestly think that Carly and you should have different lawyers. There is some sort of draw between you and her, Jax. I can tell how worn out you feel, it's written all over your face. My opinion is that if you truly want this divorce to go through and be successful, all interactions should be done between lawyers. Carly would tell Diane what she wanted; you would tell me what you wanted, and then we would compromise and then run it by the two of you until we found a way that satisfied everyone."

Jax leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes for a minute.

"You're afraid that we won't go through with it again. I can't say I blame you. We've been doing this dance for years. You're afraid I'll see her, or that she'll change her mind, talk to me, and change my mind about the divorce."

"Jax, I believe you when you say you want a divorce, and honestly believe that at this point that it is what's best. I mean that. It has nothing to do with my hatred of Carly. I mean I'm sure this is all her fault, but I have never seen you like this, and you looked even worse this morning. I always joked about Carly sucking you dry, but Jax that's what's happening. You've reached your limit. But Carly is not like you. Even if she's agreed to it now, that doesn't mean she won't wake up tomorrow and decide that she isn't ready to let you go. You know Carly, once she gets to that point, when she becomes desperate there isn't anything she won't do Jax. And the first thing she'll do is use your children. And I can't sit back and watch that happen to you Jax. I won't let Carly take everything you love away from you."

And she wouldn't. She knew what it felt like to have her children taken away from her. Jax was too good of a father to have that happened to him.

Jax shook his head and she felt sympathy for him. He never wanted to believe that Carly was capable of doing these kinds of things. He always wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"I agree that Carly should have as little contact with each other as possible. We need space from each other. I need time to figure out how to stop being in love with her and I haven't a clue as to how I'm supposed to do that."

It wouldn't be easy. But she believes he's on his way there. Even talking about it now his tone didn't sound as hopeless as it had in the past. He didn't seem as lost either.

"I'm sorry you have to at all. I know I've never really supported your relationship with Carly, but I did want you to be happy Jax. I wish there was some other way, no matter what I hate to see you hurt."

And she would've rather of had him be happy with a woman she hated for the rest of his life. Jax deserved to find that happiness and family he wanted.

Jax nodded and he gave her a soft smile.

"I know, and thank you. I guess I should call Carly and let her know."

Nope. She couldn't let him do that. He needed to start limiting his interactions with her now.

"Why don't you let me do that. After all it's my job as your divorce lawyer. I'll explain to Carly the situation and tell her to tell Diane to get ahold of me when she's officially hired."

He looked unsure but consented anyway.

"Alright well you know how to get a hold of me so unless I need to do anything else I actually have something else I need to do and it would be better to do it sooner rather than later."

She gave him a curious look.

"And what is that?"

He gave her a smile; it was teasing, serious, and joyful all at once.

"Something I'd promise a friend I'd take care of."

The smile stayed on his face as he headed toward that door.

"Does this friend have a name?"

He smiled turned softer.

"Yes."

And with that he was out her door.

She shook her head in annoyance but couldn't help her own smile. Whatever it was if it gave Jax something to be happy about then she encouraged it. He needed it. She went back and sat down on her couch to think of an attack plan before she went over to Carly's, when she saw Kristina come out of her room and set across from her on the couch.

"Hey honey. What's up?"

It was surprising. She figured Kristina would still be angry from their argument this morning.

"Well I was just wondering about something. While we were at the park we ran into Elizabeth, Cameron, and Jake and I was wondering what the deal between Jax and Elizabeth was."

* * *

"And so I was just wondering if you would consider letting Spencer come over tomorrow night for a sleep over. You won't be obligated to stay or anything I'm more than capable of watching them all, but Cameron's asking questions and with Lucky being AWOL I would love to give him something to look forward to. Alright well call me back and let me know!"

He closed the phone and set it down on the desk. He felt for Elizabeth, he knew it had to be hard for her right now. She was truly taking care of the boys by herself full-time now. Even during the affair they at least spent a lot of time together so she wasn't always having to do it all by herself, but now that the affair was over and Lucky had found out no one had been left to help her.

He thought about her proposal of the sleep over. He didn't mind the boys hanging out together they had always had fun, and Spencer had been asking questions too. He missed his cousins and didn't understand why they were never over anymore. Spencer needed to be around other children, and Elizabeth's boys were perfect. He would call her back, but he would suggest that the boys come over to Wyndemere instead. He was sure she could use a little break, a little time to just recuperate. And besides her family was broken because he couldn't control himself so it was the least he could do for her.

His mind made up he picked up his phone to let her know.

"Hey Elizabeth. Look I wanted to call you and let you know that I think it's a wonderful idea but how about I have the boys picked up and brought over here instead?"

* * *

He hadn't expected finding Lucky to be such a tedious task. He had gone to his apartment first, then his job, where they had informed him that Lucky had taken some personal time and hadn't been to work in a couple of weeks. He had asked around town as well, but no one had seen Lucky around.

So he was either hiding or he had skipped town.

He knew there was one last place Lucky could possibly be which is why he was now standing inside the Haunted Star. If there was anywhere Lucky could go to wallow and abandon his responsibilities it would be in the one place where it would probably be accepted.

"Is there something I can do for you?"

It caught him off guard to see Ethan at the bar cleaning glass. He had honestly been expecting Luke and/or Lucky to be there.

"Uh…yeah I'm looking for Lucky. I've been all around town and no one's seen him and it's important that I talk to him. I was hoping he would be here, but obviously he's not. Do you have any idea where he is?"

A look of confusion crossed Ethan's face.

"Well I can't say anything about Lucky, but Luke might have an idea only he just left her twenty minutes ago. In quite the hurry too. In fact he might've said something about Lucky now that I think about it. You can wait around here for him to come back if you want."

Jax nodded his thanks. He wondered if Luke knew about Lucky's treatment of his sons. He wondered if he even cared or if he encouraged it. From what he knew about Luke he had issues with sticking around when his children were young. Maybe he encouraged it as a family tradition.

"Hey I know it's really none of my business but what exactly do you want with Lucky? I mean from what I know you two don't really have any history together so it just makes me wonder what it could be that you need to talk to him about."

His tone was a little defensive and though he had no respect for Lucky, Ethan didn't know about any of that and it wasn't surprising he would be defensive of his brother. Jax had been the same way with Jerry, he understood that need to protect your family. He wondered if Ethan knew the entire situation, that Lucky was ignoring his responsibilities as a father. If he didn't he wondered where he would stand. Ethan obviously didn't know everything if he didn't know that Lucky and him did have history together no matter how brief it might have been. He wondered what else Ethan had yet to learn about his brother.

"I wouldn't say Lucky and I didn't have _any_ history together. We got to see more than enough of each other a few years back."

"Doesn't sound like you two got along very well. Which only serves to make me all the more curious."

Jax shakes his head.

"It was a long time ago, but it is in a way the reason I'm here."

Ethan sat his hands on the bar and leaned back.

"Look I'm not trying to start anything, and I'm not definitely not trying to get in the way of any business that you need to get done, but Lucky's had to deal with a lot and he's not exactly in a good place right now. I just don't think the guy can handle any more on his plate right now."

What could Lucky possibly have on his plate? If he wasn't going to work and he wasn't taking care of his children what other obligations could he have? Wallowing in a pit of self-pity? Drinking himself into oblivion? Yeah those were worthy causes.

"Look I don't mean you any disrespect, but you really have no idea what kind of man Lucky is. He isn't this victim that everyone's tried to make him into. The things he has done to Elizabeth are nothing compared to the damage your brother has constantly dealt to her and the boy's that he's supposed to be taking care of right now. Lucky is the maker of most of his problems."

Ethan slammed the glass he had been cleaning down on the bar, spreading his arms across the top of the bar, and stared directly into Jax's eyes.

"I'm sorry, but sounds to me that you're saying that my brother deserved be cheated on by his own fiancé and brother, and if that's the case you can take your business and get the hell out of here. I don't have a problem with Elizabeth, I know people make mistakes and that things happen sometimes, but nobody deserves that."

Jax stepped back away from bar and tried to get control of his anger. Ethan was right **nobody** did deserve that.

"You know what you're right nobody deserves that, but that didn't seem to stop your brother when he was actually **married** to Elizabeth. It didn't stop from sleeping with a girl who was just barely legal. It didn't stop him from popping pills like they were candy, which by the way almost got her killed once and then almost let that same person get away. It didn't matter to him that he had a son and wife waiting for him at home that needed him. I guarantee you that right now he's doing the same thing now that he did then because it's the way Lucky always reacts when things don't go the way he planned them. I'm sorry but your brothers nothing but a flake that doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself. And most definitely not the two boys he's left with Elizabeth. He hasn't come by to see them, he hasn't returned any of Elizabeth's calls begging him to come see the boys, and he won't even bother to try calling them himself. I don't care what Elizabeth has done, those children deserve better."

* * *

Ethan was speechless. He didn't know what to say. What could he say? He had learned more about Lucky in the last five minutes then he had in the months since he'd come to Port Charles. He wanted to tell Jax that he was wrong. That Lucky wasn't the man that he was making him out to be, but he couldn't.

He hadn't seen many of Lucky's interactions with the other citizens except for family and Elizabeth, and what he'd seen of them before the whole affair thing they were good together and seemed happy, but even those visits had been few. And looking back Elizabeth had never really looked that happy.

But that wasn't surprising if what Jax said was true. If someone had done to him what had been done to Elizabeth he didn't think he could ever be with that person again. But why wouldn't Elizabeth just say that?

And the pill thing. That was just as shocking to Ethan. Lucky being a cop he never imagined he would ever be involved in any sort of drugs.

Lucky wasn't taking pills now, at least he didn't think he was, but he had been drinking excessively which really only helped to cement Jax's picture of Lucky.

He looked over at Jax, and the man looked furious. He wondered what Elizabeth was to him since he seemed so concerned. Were they old friends?

"Look I'm not taking sides and what you've just told me is horrible, but that doesn't make what Elizabeth did ok either. At the same time it does clear some things up. When I think about it Elizabeth never really looked happy and now I kind of understand why. But why couldn't Elizabeth just tell Lucky the truth? Surely that would've been better than sleeping with Nikolas? I mean why hide the fact that you don't want to be with someone?"

Jax pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed sharply.

"Honestly I think you're asking all the wrong questions Ethan. A much better one would be what the hell is he doing here and why the hell does he care about Elizabeth and mine's issues?"

Ethan's head snapped to the entrance and there was Lucky, his eyes bright with that rage that never really seemed to leave.

* * *

Her mother looked at her shocked.

"Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean when you say deal?"

Kristina rolled her eyes. Her mom always seemed to freak out about the weirdest things. Why did it matter exactly what she meant? If she heard correctly Jax was getting divorced from Carly anyway, so if Jax decided to get back out there why did it matter?

"I mean do they have some sort of history together or something? I mean they were talking and stuff and when we came up, and they seemed to be enjoying each others company. It looked like they knew each other rather well, which seemed odd to me because I don't really ever remember seeing them hang out together before."

Her mom seemed to calm down a little bit.

"That's it though right? They were just talking?"

"Uh…yeah. Why? Oooh! Do you think maybe something could happen between the two of them! Oh my god! That would be so cool! They would make the cutest couple like ever! I can see it now! And Cameron and Jake would be so lucky! They could use someone like Jax! Maybe we…"

"Kristina! NO!"

She looked over to see her mom with a very serious expression on her face.

"You do not need to get involved in other people's lives. Jax isn't even divorced from Carly yet and even when he is he's going to need time to heal. You are not to go anywhere near them or try any of your tricks on them!"

Yeah right. How was she supposed to leave them alone? She could just see them together. Mom did make a good point though. Jax would probably need some time so he could get the divorce over with and get settled into his new routine of being a divorced parent. After that though, everything would be fair game.

Of course if she just agreed with her mom she would be suspicious so she'll have to argue a little bit.

"But Mom! Can't you just see them…"

"No Kristina. I mean it and if I hear you trying anything you'll be grounded forever."

"Whatever."

With that she jumped off the couch and stormed off to her room. Once she got there, she closed the door and smiled, and then grabbed her phone.

Her mother said _she_ couldn't do anything.

She never said anything about Molly.

* * *

Carly was just putting the last of Josslyn's toys away when a knock sounded on the door. She hurried to answer it and was relieved to see it was Jason.

"Oh thank god! Jason what took you so long! I left that message for you yesterday!" she complained while giving him a hug.

"Yeah I just got it. I was a little busy with some stuff and I didn't have time. Is everything ok?"

She sat down on the couch and she could feel tears gathering in her eyes. No. Everything was not all right. She was losing the family she always wanted and for the first time ever it seemed as if there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Jason came and sat down beside her setting his hand softly against her arm to comfort her.

"Carly, what is it? What's wrong? Is it Josslyn? Morgan? Did someone threaten you?"

He was always so good with her, always willing to try and do what he could to fix her problems.

"Jax and I are getting a divorce."

"Oh."

And he suddenly looked less concerned. She couldn't totally blame him. How many times had she come to him saying the same thing?"

"I mean it Jason. This isn't like all the other times. We're done for good this time and it's all my fault!"

She stood up off the couch, walking away from him and wiping at her eyes. She didn't want to do this, she didn't want to talk about it because the moment she did, the moment she accepted they were done it would become real, and there was a part of her that wasn't ready to give up yet. A part of her still hoped Jax would come back and say he took it all back, and it hurt worse every second he didn't.

"Did Jax say that?"

His tone was angry.

She turned back around to face him.

"No and don't be mad at him. Really it isn't his fault Jason."

His eyes held concern for her.

"What happened?"

She didn't want to admit what happened. What it was that had brought them full circle.

"He found out I slept with Sonny again."

"You did what!?"

Carly quickly jumped around to see Alexis Davis in her living room, her expression livid.

* * *

She hung up her phone and turned around to tell her boys the good news. They were sitting at the dinner table eating mac and cheese, carrots, and some apple slices. Or they had been. Looking at them now she could see a mini food fight had apparently gone on when she had her back turned.

"Boys what have I told you about playing with your food?" she said with a slightly chiding tone. She really wasn't all that angry; they were just doing things that children did.

Cameron smiled up innocently.

"I'm sorry Mommy."

"It's ok baby. Just remember you and Jakey have to eat your food so you can grow up to be big and strong. You want to be big and strong right?"

Cameron nodded his head.

"Yeah!"

She helped the boys wash off and then sat them on the couch so she could tell them the good news.

"So guess who called me today?"

Cameron jumped up in excitement.

"Who!"

"Yeah Momma? Who?"

"Uncle Nikolas and he invited both of you to go and spend the night with him and Spencer at Wyndemere!"

Her children squealed in delight! She was so glad Nikolas decided to call her back and made the plans for the boys. She was more than capable of watching all the boys, but it would be nice to have a day off.

"Yay! We get to go to Uncle Nikolas's castle, Jakey!"

Their excitement was infectious and it spread to her and allowed her to let the boys stay up a little later that night, listening talk about all the things they planned on doing with Spencer the next day.

* * *

**AN: Alright! Well that's the end of Chapter 4! Thank to everyone for reading and let me know what you guys think!**


	5. Chapter 5 Showdown

**AN: So for me today is the last day of summer. Tomorrow I start college and while I'm somewhat excited that means that my time to write will be cut into. I still plan on writing as often as I can but I'm also getting a job to pay for my insurance payment and car payment. So if updates are slower you guys will know why.**

**Thank you to:**

**Lizbeth2003, bookfreak25, Kimmy123, trini12180, sweetgirl23, and all my guests for their reviews!**

**layellderoe for adding my story to their favorites!  
**

**KarmaisLovely for following my story!  
**

**Thank you all! It's so great to have all this support!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own GH.**

**Something New**

**Chapter 5: Showdown**

Alexis couldn't believe the words that had just come out of Carly's mouth. She couldn't believe the other woman could be so selfish. No wonder Jax seemed so defeated, and his statement that he couldn't do it anymore; it all made so much sense now.

Carly didn't even have the decency to look ashamed, but then again she probably wasn't. She never was. She never cared what it did to Jax, how her going to another man tore into him. She never understood how he could forgive her with sleeping with Sonny, and the fact he had forgiven her multiple times? It just showed how much he loved her, and how little she cared for that love.

She thought about going further in, but decided against it. She wasn't here to start a fight; she was here as Jax divorce attorney and she needed to stay as civil as one, who had just find out that the reason their best friends heart was broken and his marriage was over was because his wife couldn't resist sleeping with her ex-husband every time something went wrong, could.

"You know, I don't even know why I bother being surprised anymore. I mean it wasn't like it's the first time you abandon the vows you made to Jax, to go to the comfort of another man. But I hope you're happy with yourself Carly. All Jax ever wanted was to love you and be a family with you, your boys, and the daughter you had together. That's it Carly. He loved you. He loved you in a way you will never understand because you aren't capable of feeling a love that deep."

Carly took a step toward her, anger and pain in her eyes. Good she deserved to be in pain.

"You don't know anything Alexis. Jax loves me! And I love him! I've always loved him. Besides it wasn't like I just slept with Sonny, it was months ago!"

She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Oh ok. Well that makes it ok Carly. That makes it all better, as long was just a few months ago, who cares? God! What is wrong with you? You can't honestly be that delusional Carly. You can't believe that **when **you slept with Sonny matters! Carly it isn't the when it's the fact you slept with him at all! It's the fact that this isn't the first time you've done it! That if Jax wasn't ending this marriage now then you probably would've done it again! The only reason Jax didn't dump your unfaithful ass before this is because he never wanted to believe his wife was a faithless tramp!"

So much for staying calm. She couldn't help it though, she had wanted to yell those things at Carly since the day she married Sonny before Jax came back home on the fool's errand of trying to save his brother.

"Alexis. I think it's time you left."

She had actually forgotten Jason was there. Not surprising though, who did Carly go to for all her troubles? Never her husband, and always the hit man.

"And look there's you savior now. I hope sleeping with Sonny was worth it."

She turned towards Jason, who wasn't her favorite person but his relationship with her daughter demanded they be civil.

"Look, I know Carly will probably try and convince you to find a way to help her out of this mess, or ask you advice on how to avoid divorcing Jax, and I'm going to advise you not too. Carly made this mess. For once just let her sit in it and maybe she'll learn from it."

She stalks toward the door before remembering why she was here in the first place.

"Oh by the way, Jax has hired me to represent him for the divorce, so when you get around to actually hiring Diane tell her to give me a call."

And with that she left Carly's house for what would hope would be the last time.

* * *

Molly looked up at Kristina in curiosity. She had said she had someone else who needed relationship help since Mom was refusing to co-operate any longer. She wondered who it could be. Kristina wouldn't tell her over the phone and she was dying to know. She loved helping people find their true love.

"Come on Kristina I'm dying here. Who are we going to help?"

Kristina crossed her arms, smiled mischievously, and then came to sit by her on her bed.

"Jax."

What?

"Uh…Kristina Jax is already married."

She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah but not happily. Besides I heard him talking to Mom today and they're getting a divorce."

But it wasn't the first time they had decided that. What made Kristina so sure that they would really get divorced this time? She gave Kristina a look of disbelief to convey her doubt.

"Trust me it is definitely over, even Mom thinks so. Besides you didn't see him this morning Molly, but he looked so sad. It hurt to look at him."

Molly wasn't sure where their expertise was supposed to come in. If Jax wasn't even divorced yet, there was no way he was ready for a new relationship.

"But if he's so sad, and you're for sure him and Carly can't get back together than what exactly do you plan on us doing? From what you're telling me Jax isn't going to be ready for a relationship for a while, maybe at the earliest after the divorce depending on how long it lasts."

Kristina was bouncing up and down on the bed. She obviously knew something Molly didn't.

"Well that's what I was trying to get to. See I had to go to the park for a project and Mom had to go to a meeting and Jax was here, and because I'm grounded he ended up taking me. So while we were there we ran into Elizabeth and her two little boys. Well I guess Elizabeth saw how tired and worn Jax looked so she let me take the boys to help me with the project while her and Jax stayed behind. When we came back Jax had his arm on her shoulder and he had the sweetest look in his eyes and he looked so much happier. Elizabeth too. They were both wearing the most wonderful smile Molly. It was so…I don't know but there was definitely something between them."

Molly frowned. She was trying to remember a time she had ever seen Elizabeth and Jax together and she couldn't even come up with a time they had been in the same room. It seemed weird that Jax would have a personal conversation with a complete stranger.

Unless it _was_ true love.

She smiled brilliantly and clapped her hands.

"Oh! Kristina you are so right! I mean if they have that much between them and they hardly know each other it has to be true love. They must be meant for each other."

Molly could see it now. Them building a huge house together, enough room for all their current and future children. Oh they had to make it happen!

"See that's the weird part though. I think they were too comfortable with each other to have no history together."

"Yeah but Kristina I've never seen them together. If they were friends don't you think we would've seen them together at least once or if nothing else at least hear him or Mom talk about her?"

Kristina's eyes brightened.

"See that's the thing! Mom practically freaked out when I asked her about the two of them and if they had a history together."

Molly eyes widened. With each passing moment the story just seemed to get better. What was better than lovers that were separated being able to come back to each other and fall in love?

"Well what did she say? What's their story?"

She couldn't wait to hear what it was. She hoped it was romantic.

Kristina's smile turned sheepish.

"See that's the thing I kinda started going on about how cute of a couple they would be and Mom of course freaked out and then forbid from getting involved or I'd be grounded."

Kristina rolled her eyes, and usually Molly would get on to Kristina for not listening to their mom, but she knew that this was too serious to let something like a grounding stop them.

"So I said I wouldn't get involved which is why I called you. You're going to have to do most of the stuff on your own until I'm out from underneath her eagle eye."

Alone? It would take forever if she didn't have help. How was she supposed to set two people up without any back up?

Her feelings must have been written on her face because Kristina continued.

"Hey don't freak out we can't really do anything now anyway, remember? Jax is still married and he'll have a lot to deal with after they are, which is good because it'll give us time to find out what their past was and how to help them in that step to move their relationship to the next level."

"Ok but then what do you want me to do?"

Kristina put her hands on both Molly's shoulders and looked at with a very serious expression.

"You need to do some research. Find out how they met and when their paths crossed and what could've happened to cause them to seem so close. And also whether they've had other encounters in the last few years that we don't know about."

She couldn't help but smile. That would be easy Molly was great at research. It was her area of expertise.

"Molly don't forget you probably won't be able to find most of this stuff online which means you'll have to ask some people, and do it without looking suspicious. If Mom finds out what we're doing we are so going to be toast."

Molly nodded.

Great. Research was her expertise. Subterfuge? Not so much.

* * *

Jax eye's snapped open. Lucky was standing at the entrance of the Haunted Star, his eyes blazing with rage. He wouldn't be surprised if his showed the same. And it only made him angrier the way he had said Elizabeth's name. As if he owned her or something. It made him sick. In a way it was unfortunate that Lucky had to be the father of her children. It meant she would never truly be free of him.

Lucky walked down the steps glaring at Jax the entire time.

"Well are you going to answer? What the hell are you doing here."

"Looking for you, and honestly I can't say I'm all the surprised that it would be at bar that I'm finding you. After all that is what you do, right Lucky? Anytime life throws any sort of curve ball, or just don't like the hand you're dealt you engorge yourself in self-pity and some sort of drug or alcohol. It doesn't matter if anyone else gets hurt in the process; it's all just about poor, poor Lucky."

He thought the more he talked the more calm he would get, but something about Lucky, seeing him so…uncaring, as if the fact that he had two boys at home who needed him meant nothing; it just caused him to become all the more enraged.

"What the hell do you know!? She agreed to marry me and then went and had an affair with my brother? What the hell do you expect me to do!? Forgive her!?"

He had tears in his eyes but they didn't affect Jax. Because he could understand Lucky ignoring Elizabeth, in fact he felt better that he had. He didn't trust Lucky, Jax had always felt that Lucky was just one wrong word away from being pushed over the edge. Jax perceived him as violent he was just glad it hadn't ever spilled over onto Elizabeth and her children, but if he had been drinking like Jax thought he was, then all that could easily change.

No he was here and incredibly pissed off because his actions were hurting his children, and what made Jax the angriest is that Lucky didn't even seem to care.

"I don't know if you've forgotten but you have children at home that are wondering where their daddy is and don't understand why he won't come see them. I don't care if you hate Elizabeth and you never want to see her again, but you have an obligation as those children's father to help take care, love, and be a part of their life."

Lucky snorted.

"What obligation? They're not my children. Not really. Sure I've raised them, but I'm not their father, not biologically. I never had to go out of my way to take care them, I chose to. But after all that's happened I don't really see a point anymore. I am so tired of having to play daddy to children who aren't mine. Why should I take care of the children of two different men? And you know what? I'm not going to anymore. Elizabeth wants to be a slut, fine. I'm done with her and her mista…"

SMACK!

* * *

He watched as Carly sunk to the couch; a few tears rolling down her cheeks.

A part of him hated that this had happened to Carly, but at the same time he wasn't sure what she expected. Then again he hadn't been sure what she had thought when she decided to marry Jax in the first place. He has never liked Jax, and watching him while he had been married to Carly only increased his dislike for the man. He never gave Carly respect, he never stood by her, it seemed as if he was always patronizing her as well, and yet the man still wondered why Carly would rather come to him and Sonny for help. At least they would listen to her. Jax just seemed to ignore her.

Not that it made what Carly did right, but Jax knew what he was getting into when he married Carly. She had told him that they would always be a part of her life. If Jax couldn't handle that then he never should've married her.

"She had no right to say that Carly, and it's not true. She's just angry, and she doesn't have the entire story. I'm sure she only has what Jax has told her and knowing him he exaggerated it. Besides she forgets that Jax has made own fair share of mistakes. It's not all so one sided."

Carly shook her head.

"Jason…I cheated on my husband and not just once. How…"

"Carly you made mistakes and most of those times happened because Jax couldn't be bothered to stick around and help you. If you want me to tell you what Alexis said is true then you need to talk to someone else. I know you and you aren't like that Carly."

More tears fell down her face, and Jason pulled her into his arms.

"Jason…"

And he just held her while she cried because that was what she needed and there was no one else around to get it from. He let her cry out all her pain, her guilt, everything until she was done and couldn't cry anymore.

She wiped at his shirt.

"Sorry and thank you. I really needed that."

He nodded.

"It's not a problem Carly. You know you can always come to me for anything."

She smiled and said thank you quietly one last time.

"Well I better get going, I'm sure Sam's starting to wonder where I am. I didn't think I would be gone this long. And don't worry I'll call Diane and tell her the situation. I'm sure she'll be able to come over and talk to you tomorrow. Just be careful Carly ok?"

She nodded, and he walked out the door eager to get home to Sam.

* * *

In all fairness Jax really had tried to keep his anger in check. After the shock of what Lucky had said about Elizabeth's children had worn off, anger had quickly started to take over, and after the comment about her being a slut and what he had been about to call her children? He had had enough. Really he had taken the steps without even noticing, and he didn't even realize he had planned on punching Lucky until his fist had connected with the others face.

It was only because he had frozen in shock at punching Lucky, that he had been able to recover and tackle Jax. Lucky managed to get in a few good punches before Jax managed to kick him off. Lucky scrambled back, and in the angry haze that he was in he followed. He didn't see the vase that had landed on the floor. Didn't realize that it was in the same direction Lucky was headed. Didn't see it in Lucky's hand until it was too late; and by then his world was swallowed in pain and then there was nothing.

* * *

He should've tried to stop it. It had been so clear that things were about to get out of hand. He hadn't been able to move though. He had been in shock. Ethan had never expected the way the conversation had turned. He never would've thought Lucky would be the kind of man to abandon his children. What did it matter if they weren't biologically his? Lucky had been the only father they ever had; it didn't matter to them. Children didn't even understand genetics. They could only tell their parents by who was there, and that was Lucky. So how could he just change his mind like that? It disgusted him. The most shocking repulsive thing though, the thing that bothered him the most was what Lucky had almost said before Jax punched him. How could a man go from loving children he considered his own to calling them mistakes with disgust in his eyes?

He had come out of his shock just in time to see Lucky smash a vase into the side of Jax's head. The man almost instantly crumbled and Lucky only sat in shock for a few seconds before running off. Ethan hurried over to Jax while pulling out his cell phone and calling an ambulance, which is how he now found himself at the hospital.

Ethan didn't know what to think anymore. He had obviously greatly misjudged Lucky and that had never happened to him before, not to a degree that was this bad. The Lucky he saw tonight and the Lucky he thought he knew were nowhere near the same person.

He knew why too. He had let what Luke and the others of his newly acquired family tell him what to expect from the other members, instead of figuring it out for himself. One thing was for sure he needed to learn more about the other members of his family. After all if there was that much and most likely more about Lucky he didn't know then what didn't he know about the other members?

A shadow came over him and he looked up and met the eyes of Luke.

And suddenly a memory whirled into his head.

It was the night Elizabeth had come in asking, no begging for Luke to help her. He had actually felt bad for her and had attempted try and find Lucky after that but to no avail. In fact until tonight the last time he had seen Lucky had been the day before Elizabeth had come.

But that didn't matter right now because now all he could remember is what Luke had said. That Lucky wasn't obligated to take care of children that weren't his, and he snapped because he realized in that moment that Lucky must have been there, must've heard what Luke had said. How else would he have come up with the idea, not to mention he almost said it verbatim to the way Luke had.

He jumped up from his chair and got in Luke's face. Too angry to care about an audience, too angry to care that this was way out of character for him and conflicted with his usual stance of not picking sides. He was too angry to care about any of it. Luke tried to reach out but he moved out of the way.

"Don't because this is all your fault."

* * *

**AN: Thank you to everyone for reading! Let me know what you guys think, and I'll try to have the next update up as soon as I can. And what do y'all think about Ethan? Is his character ok? Or is it a little too out of character? Let me know!**

**If anyone else is going back to school tomorrow have a great first day!  
**


	6. Chapter 6 Shattered

**AN: Thank you to:**

**Kimmy123, Lizbeth2003, sashahailee,** **13Sarah94, sweetgirl23, sj, and guests for their reviews**

**GetMoMoney-333 for following my story**

**Disclaimer: I do not own GH**

**Something New**

**Chapter 6: Shattered**

Elizabeth picked up the toys that were scattered around the house. Nikolas had just come by and picked up the boys for the sleep over. He had brought Spencer with him and Cameron had insisted on showing Spencer the new toy Gram had bought him, leaving her and Nikolas alone. They had awkwardly avoided looking at each other until the boys had come back down. She had wanted to say something, anything to him, but no words would come out. Not that she knew what to say either. Nikolas had seemed as if he had debated saying something, but the boys had come back down and their attentions were turned towards them.

Her boys had been so happy. She was so grateful that, even though things between her and Nikolas were weird, her boys didn't have to pay. She hoped that maybe after more time had passed they could find a way to get back to the friendship they had once possessed. If nothing else at least they were on the right road to that possibility.

Her thoughts turned to Jax and she wondered how he was doing. He had looked much better after their talk but she knew how hard and painful it was to let go of someone who you loved with all your heart. She wondered what it had happened to put that look in his eyes too. Whatever it had been their talked had helped somewhat because when he had left he looked much more hopeful and less defeated. She guessed he was just glad that he had someone backing him up on his decisions and she felt anger flare up in her towards Carly.

She remembered when Jax was first starting his relationship with Carly and thinking even then that Carly wouldn't be any good for Jax; that she would never be able to give him what he wanted and needed, and it seemed that her initial reaction had been correct. She wondered if that is how Jax had felt when they were going through the surrogacy. Jax had taken an immediate disliking the first moment they had met and she wondered if he had seen something that she hadn't; if somehow he knew that Lucky had it in him to be the man he was acting like now. A man who could abandon his children and a man she never thought existed until recently. It made her wonder if she had been blind when she had been married to Lucky or if she had made him this way.

She could feel that self-loathing bubbling just below that surface and knew that it would be so easy to give into it.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

Suddenly Jax's words came back to her and she realized that even with the mistakes she had made, Lucky was ultimately the one who chose what actions to take. She believed that she had an important role in it and that yes a lot of this was her fault, but it had been seven months. She understood time away was necessary, but her boys shouldn't have to wait any longer.

She just hoped Jax could find Lucky and convince him to come see the boys. Elizabeth would do anything. If it was because he didn't want to see her, she would leave her own house and have Gram come be with the boys if that's what he needed to come and spend time with his sons.

Elizabeth couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong either. She didn't know why, but her gut was telling her that _something_ had happened or would be happening soon. It had caused knots in her stomach all day but she had ignored them in favor of preparing her boys for the sleep over, but now with nothing to do the feeling gnawed at her.

She tried to refocus her mind by doing the many chores that needed to be done around the house now that the boys were gone. She was halfway through vacuuming Cameron's room when finally the feeling became too persistent and she started to feel nauseous.

She had no idea what was going on with her. She just knew something was wrong somehow.

Elizabeth shook her head at herself. It was just all the stress of Lucky absence messing with her and she _knew_ she was being ridiculous but it didn't make the feeling go away. Maybe she should call Jax and see if he had any luck with the Lucky situation.

* * *

Luke's face immediately showed confusion and Ethan realized that the other man had no idea why his son was here.

"You going to tell me what's all my fault or am I going to have to guess."

A part of Ethan's brain realized that Luke was simply just responding the same way he always would, but the flippant uncaring tone he said it in only further enraged him and he realized that he couldn't have this conversation right now. Too much had just happened and he was too angry. Any conversation they had now would only end in a fight. He needed time to process everything before he could have this conversation with Luke. It took all his will power not to just unleash everything right there in the lobby.

Ethan pushed past Luke, determined to find someone who could tell him what the condition was on Jax. Luke wouldn't let him go and proceeded to follow him.

"Oh come on! You can't just blame me for something and then not tell me what it is."

Ethan clenched his fist. Why couldn't Luke see that he didn't want to talk about this now? He spotted the nurse that had been there when Jax had been brought in and hurried up to her.

"Hey. You were here earlier when they brought Jax in. Can you tell me what his condition is? I mean is he going to be OK?"

She bit her bottom lip and Ethan felt a pit form in his stomach. Surely Lucky hadn't hit Jax hard enough to cause any serious damage.

"Well most of his wounds were just superficial. You know just simple cuts from the glass. There were a few that were a little deeper and the doctor's afraid that one of them might leave a scar but it's behind the ear so it probably won't even be noticeable. That's not what the doctor is afraid of though."

Ethan huffed in frustration. Why couldn't she just come out and say what the problem was?

"The doctor is worried about the force of the hit because of where the vase made contact, which was right by the ear. Injuries to and near the ear are worrisome because there is a risk that deafness could occur."

Deafness?

"Wait. Are you saying Jax could be deaf because of a stupid vase?"

The nurse gave him a sympathetic look.

"He wouldn't be totally deaf. The injury was only done to the right side of his head so it would only be the one ear in which he couldn't here. But they don't know for sure yet. They can't move his ear and check without the possibility of tearing some of the stitches from one of the deeper cuts, so I'm afraid we just have to wait for him to wake up before we know for sure. Now I'm sorry but I really have to go and do my rounds now."

"Thanks."

He turned away slowly. Damn. How did things get so out of hand so fast?

"Dang Dodge what happened after I left? And what was Jax doing at the Haunted Star anyway?"

Ethan was about to turn around and tell Luke _exactly_ what had happened when a voice sounded from behind him.

"That's what I want to know."

Ethan turned around and came face to face with the police commissioner.

The words on his tongue died. As much as he was angry at Lucky, Ethan didn't trust the police. Lucky was one of their own and he had seen before what cops would do to cover for one another.

"Well? What happened tonight at the Haunted Star?"

At the same time though Lucky was still out there and who knows what kind of state he was in. He had been so full of rage. What if he hurt someone else? No. One innocent person in the hospital was enough.

"Look if I tell you, you have to promise that you will bring him in that you won't let this go. There are other innocent people out there he could hurt."

Mac nodded though he looked a little offended.

"Of course we will. Now what happened?"

He took a deep breath knowing he was about to open a can of worms no one was going to want to touch.

And he was afraid Luke would see this as a betrayal and no matter how furious he was right now, or how many things he probably still didn't know about them he didn't want to lose the new family he had acquired. What he was about to say could do that.

"Lucky happened."

* * *

Elizabeth frowned as she only got Jax's voice-mail.

"Hey Jax, it's just me Elizabeth. I was just wondering if you had any luck with Lucky, but I guess you busy right now. Look I know this sounds silly but when you get this can you give me a call? I've just been having this really weird feeling all day and…"

She was interrupted by pounding on the door. She hurried over to the door while finishing her message.

"Alright someone's at the door, so look just call me when you get this."

There was another round of pounding and she hurried over to it, forgetting to close her phone to end the call.

"Alright! I'm coming! Jeez what's the hur..."

There in front of her was Lucky, but she didn't recognize him. His eyes were glazed and burning with such an intense hatred and rage that she couldn't help but step back in fear.

"Lu…Lucky. What are you doing here."

He stepped slowly into her home looking around.

"Where are the boys?"

His voice was cold and uncaring, and she was grateful that the boys weren't here having the sleep over. She never wanted them to see Lucky like this.

"They're at a friend's house having a sleep over."

Elizabeth hadn't paid much attention to Jax when he had told her he was afraid Lucky would lose his temper with her. She had been with Lucky for years and when he was on pain pills he never once laid a hand on her. She never believed him capable of it. But looking at him now she didn't know what to expect.

"You mean they're with Nikolas."

He turned his gaze toward her and it took all her control not to flinch back. It was so dark, so cruel, and contained so much rage. She was terrified.

"You see I was watching. I saw him come in here. What'd you do? Have a quickie before he took the kids off your hands? What taking care of your own kids too much trouble for you?"

Her anger got the better of her then.

"Oh that's funny coming from you. Someone who couldn't even be bothered to pick up a phone and call his own sons."

Lucky chuckled darkly.

"I don't have any children."

His words crushed her heart.

"What are you talking about? Of course you do! You have two boys who…"

Lucky's eyes burned with rage and he took a step closer to her.

"They are not my children. I was kind of enough to play daddy to them for a while, but I'm done now. They're not my problem anymore."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She didn't want to believe it.

"Lucky you can't. They need you. They love you! Please! Don't do this."

Her pleading did nothing. He was too far gone.

"I don't see what you're worried about. I mean it's not like you have a shortage of guys willing fall all over themselves to do things for you. I mean I wasn't surprised that Nikolas came crawling back, you already had him wrapped around your finger, but Jax? Now that was a surprise."

It happened to be at that moment that she noticed the blood on his brown leather jacket.

She looked up at Lucky in horror.

"Oh my god Lucky! What did you do!?"

He took another step towards her causing her to take a step back only to feel her back hit the wall.

Distantly she was aware of the sound of her phone falling out of her hand.

Lucky smiled darkly.

"Nothing he didn't deserve and in all fairness he was the one that hit me first. But tell me why was he there anyway? What damn business is it of Jax's what our problems are? Huh!? You know I'm getting real sick of you always going to other men to solve our problems!"

He grabbed her arms then shoved her up against the wall.

"What is it about you that just draws other men? It's so infuriating."

This close up she could smell the heavy stench of alcohol on his breath and it only served to frighten her more.

"You know I think it's about time I got some payback. What do you think?"

He had somewhat relaxed and Elizabeth took full advantage. She jammed her knee right into his groin.

He doubled over and she ran around him and headed for the front door.

"You stupid bitch!"

She yanked open the front door and ran out only to run smack into someone else's chest. At that point she did the only thing she could.

She screamed.

* * *

Mac couldn't help the sense of disbelief he felt after Ethan finished explaining what had happened. They had moved to a private conference room to make sure that the questioning wouldn't be over heard, and so the young man wouldn't have to keep seeing the betrayed and angry glances that were being sent his way.

"And you're sure that's what happened?"

Ethan folded his arms and glared.

"You mean am I sure I saw Lucky hit another man in the head with a vase and then run off? Yeah I'm pretty sure. It's kind of hard to mistake that don't you think?"

"Look I'm sorry. It's just I've never seen Lucky act like the way you've described. It's almost impossible to believe."

The other man snorted.

"Yeah, you're telling me."

Mac felt his eyes soften in sympathy as he looked at Ethan. He knew it couldn't be easy for the other one to be here telling them all this, after all Lucky was family.

"Look I appreciate you being honest. I know Lucky's family…"

Ethan's head snapped up.

"I'm not upset about Lucky, for all I care that bastard can rot in hell for all eternity. No I just feel bad for Elizabeth and her boys. It's going to be such a shock. And…"

The door behind him opened and one of his officers stepped in.

"Commissioner we have a problem. The patient whose room you sent me to guard isn't there anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"The room was empty sir and no one was in it."

Great the last thing he needed was for Jax to try to get justice on his own. It always over complicated things and made everything worse in the end.

"I bet I know where he's going."

Mac looked over at Ethan.

"Where?"

"Well he was there at the Haunted Star for Elizabeth and Lucky knows that, so he's probably afraid she's in danger. Or at least he's going to warn her and make sure she's safe."

Mac hadn't even thought about Elizabeth being in danger. He should've sent a unit out immediately to make sure she was OK.

"Damn it! Ok then that's where we're headed."

* * *

Jax had been anxious since the moment he had woken up. He had wanted to get out of the hospital the moment he had woken up, but the nurse refused until the doctor had cleared him. It irritated him but he had consented. It wouldn't have done him any good to end up back in the hospital worse off than before, but knowing that hadn't helped. He knew Lucky was still out there, having managed to get away before anyone arrived.

He felt the rage he felt last night come back. He would never understand the decision Lucky had made. It didn't make any sense to him. Jax would never understand how someone could just stop loving and caring for their children. The thought of never seeing Josslyn, Morgan, or Michael brought pain to his heart, and for Lucky to act as if his children were just toys, and to even suggest that they were mistakes? Jax never thought he would ever hate a human being more than Sonny Corinthos, but it seemed as if Lucky was bringing surprises to everyone.

His thoughts turned to Elizabeth and his heart sunk. She would be crushed and how was he supposed to tell her that her scum of an ex-husband couldn't be bothered to take care of her children anymore? She deserved so much better than what she was getting.

He suddenly realized that Elizabeth didn't know about anything that had happened last night, and fear filled his heart. Lucky had been so angry. What if he went after Elizabeth? She needed get her boys and go somewhere safe, a friend's house, or anywhere with a bunch of people. She needed to be warned.

Jax looked for his cell phone and found it on the side table. He flipped it open and saw he had missed call and a voice mail. He felt a part of him relax as he heard Elizabeth's voice, but it quickly turned to worry when she mentioned Lucky and talked about the weird feeling she had. He felt dread when he heard the pounding at the door and Elizabeth heading to the door to open it. The moment she said Lucky's name he snapped into action.

The fear he heard in her tone was too much. Screw the doctors, screw the nurses, and screw anyone who was going to try and keep him away. She was in danger and it might be because **he **pushed Lucky too far. If he had only kept his cool he could of at least maybe of been there explaining the situation to her when Lucky arrived.

He should've never of hit the other man and to think that Elizabeth could be hurt because of it…

He shook his head. Elizabeth needed him over there now and those thoughts wouldn't help him.

* * *

Luke stared at Elizabeth with shock. Her scream chilled him to the bone with the fear and desperation that had been present in it.

He put his hand gently around her arms.

She screamed again and tried to pull away, but he held tighter.

"Elizabeth! Calm down. It's ok it just me. It's just me, Luke. What's wrong…"

His voiced died as he heard someone staggering in the house making their way toward the doorway, and he pulled Elizabeth behind him to protect her.

"You stupid bitch! You're going to pay for that."

Luke felt as if ice had entered his veins. Even with the slur Luke would've recognized that voice anywhere.

He saw Lucky's face change to one of surprise when he saw Luke.

"Dad? What are you doing here?"

He shook his head. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe what Lucky had turned into, and he remembered what Ethan said and realized that in that moment what he had meant and that he was right. This was all his fault.

"I came by here to see Elizabeth. Thought she deserved to know everything that had gone down last night."

He had wanted to warn her. He hated that Dodge had told the cops on one of their own, but looking at what Lucky was doing he realized that he had done the right thing. It seemed as if he was going to have a lot of apologizing to do.

"Yeah well you should've told us instead."

He looked back and saw Mac and some police officers standing at the fence.

Lucky looked shocked.

Mac came up and looked at Elizabeth, he saw concern and compassion swell up there before those same eyes turned to look at Lucky and those feelings were replace by a bright anger and disgust.

Mac went up to Lucky, grabbed his arms, and shoved him up against the side of the house.

"Lucky Spencer, you are under arrest for the assault of Jasper Jacks and Elizabeth Webber. You have the right to remain silent…"

"Mac you can't be serious."

Luke winced as he watched Mac tightened the cuffs.

"Oh come on Mac! You know what she did! She deserved it! And so did her newest toy! They both got exactly what they deserved!"

"Anything you say can and **will** be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?"

Mac didn't even bother waiting for a reply. He just roughly turned Lucky around and escorted him to the police car, "accidentally" bumping his head against the door as he shoved him in.

The only thing Jax could think when he saw the police car was that he had been too late. And then he saw Elizabeth, and the giant pit he had felt forming in his stomach vanished and the relief he felt was so great.

"Elizabeth!"

Of course he was still worried. Lucky had still been alone with her; he still could've hurt her. He just needed to see she was OK.

Elizabeth looked up and he saw relief come over her face, and she abandoned her place behind Luke and ran over to him. He didn't expect the hug she flung around him when she got there but he could feel her shaking, and he was so relieved that she was OK that he didn't even think about it as he wrapped his arms tightly around her.

"Lucky was talking about you and him talking and then getting into a fight, and then I saw the blood on his shirt and I didn't know what to think. I was…I was so afraid something had happened to you and…"

And then she was sobbing. Jax pulled her in closer and tightened his hold.

"Hey. It's ok. I'm ok. You're ok. Everything's ok."

And she shook her head emphatically.

"No. No it isn't Jax. I…"

And she just couldn't stop sobbing.

"Shhh. I know there's a lot to deal with but just focus on the fact that everyone's ok, that the boys weren't home so they didn't see any of that, and that he is never going to hurt you again. Everything is going to be ok."

And then he just held her and let her cry because she needed to; needed someone to lean on after having her world shatter around her.

* * *

**AN: Alright! That's chapter 6! Let me know what you guys think! **

**And thank you to everyone for the good first day wishes. I find the first day of college is like every other first day of school. Except they successfully make you dread the rest of the semester.**


	7. Chapter 7 Moving On

**AN: I would like to thank:**

**GetMoMoney-333, Kimmy123, 13Sarah94, trini12180, sashahailee, Krissy07, Theresa, Lizbeth2003, sj, Spiritkit, Through the Mirror Darkly, and Guests for their reviews!**

**Through the Mirror Darkly, Ygritte the Huntress, and Lizzie0609 for following my story!**

******Through the Mirror Darkly** and Lizzie0609 for favoriting my story!

**And Through the Mirror Darkly for favoriting me!**

**Thank all you for reading and your support!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own GH!**

**Something New **

**Chapter 7: Moving Forward**

Elizabeth didn't know what she would've done if Jax hadn't been around this last month. It had been unbelievably difficult. Cameron had been very upset to hear about Lucky. It hadn't been too bad until he heard Mac talking at the park about what had happened. Originally he had just been sad that Lucky was in trouble and couldn't see him or Jake, but he had come running to her on day while at the park with tears in his eyes and asked her if it was true that Daddy had hurt her.

It had been the worst day of her life; she had never wanted Cameron to learn the truth. He was too young and innocent to have to learn about the horrible things that sometimes happened in life and no child should ever think that the man they considered a father was a monster. She hadn't known what to do, but she did her best to console her baby. She had even been more worried when Jake came over and asked his brother what was wrong, she didn't know what to expect from Cameron knowing how vulnerable he felt right then.

She had been surprised to hear him say that he just fallen. She would've thought that he would've told Jake because he was so upset, but then again Cameron had always been a very protective older brother, so maybe he realized that Jake didn't need to know or didn't want to tell him. She didn't know but she hated that he had to do it in the first place. Mac had come by and apologized, and Elizabeth had wanted to stay angry but she could tell how sincere he had been and honestly she was just so tired of being angry or upset. She was ready to move on with her life.

And Jax was doing an amazing job of helping her accomplish that. He helped her rid the house of anything of Lucky, he had helped comfort and talk to Cameron, and he was just being there for her. She was so glad and had thanked him so many times she lost count. He was turning out to be the best friend.

The biggest surprise for her though had been Morgan. He seemed to be the one that had been able to help Cameron the most. He was always willing to play with him and Jake when Jax would come over and keep her company. Sometimes they would be by themselves though and she would see Cameron and him talking, and Cameron always seemed to feel better after these talks, and she thinks Morgan is gradually helping him come to terms with what happened.

Another surprise was Jake. He always played with Cameron and Morgan, but after about an hour he would return to them and start talking to Jax and asking him questions, and more than anything he loved for Jax to tell him stories. Sometimes Jax would tell him stories about his own personal adventures, others he would talk about the adventures and trouble that Jerry and him used to have and get into when they were kids, and sometimes he would just describe the places he had seen, and no matter what it was Jake always paid rapt attention to each one and always asked for more. Sometimes on the more exciting ones Morgan and Cameron would come and listen and she loved to sit back and watch her children listen. His stories always seemed to make them happy and she thinks telling them brings joy to Jax as well. His eyes always were so bright with excitement, and he always kept the boys on the edge of their seats. He was a phenomenal story-teller.

She was glad this brought joy for him. He could use it she knew. Carly's agreement with the divorce hadn't lasted long and she was now using every trick in the book to find a way to talk to him. Jax had to resort to letting either Alexis picking up the kids or having Diane drop them off at the Metro Court. He knew what Carly wanted, but she knew he had meant it when he had said he was through. He was tired of playing the games and he wasn't going to anymore. Carly just hadn't accepted it yet. Elizabeth guessed she would just be forced to when the time to sign the divorce papers came.

It had been nice to finally help repay back Jax some of the kindness he had shown her. The situation with Carly aggravated him and he now often fumed to her about what she had done that day. It was a nice comfortable situation they had arranged for themselves and Elizabeth found that she was hopeful for the future.

* * *

"Urgh! That's it I give up!'

Molly had been diligently searching for anything that could tie Elizabeth and Jax together. First she had started with just typing in their names and seeing what came up on Google. Nothing she could use or didn't already know. So she decided to go through and look for old newspapers that were online. They weren't any help and they had only gone back a couple of years at most if she was lucky. Then, not wanting to admit defeat, she decided she would go to the library where they kept a record of all the old newspapers. After this last week of trips she was done. She couldn't look at another newspaper. This meant she was going to have to go ask others about two people who seem to have nothing to do with each other, and avoid raising any sort of suspicion while doing it.

Yeah. There's no _way_ that could go wrong.

She groaned and then face planted onto the keyboard.

Ding!

Molly looked and squealed in delight.

"Yes! Finally! Thank you!"

It was a medium-sized article and had a picture of Elizabeth and Jax, and looked like they were either planting something. Molly's eyes widened in shock as she read the article.

"Oh my God."

* * *

Alexis stared at her eldest daughter suspiciously. She _knew_ something was up. Kristina had been far too cooperative with her punishment and she seemed to have listened to her when she told her to leave the Elizabeth/Jax thing go, which meant her daughter was up to something. Now what could it be?

"What?" Kristina asked rather rudely.

"Excuse me?"

Kristina rolled her eyes.

"You've been staring at me like that for like 15 minutes now; it looks like you're dissecting me with your brain or something and it's really starting to weird me out."

Now she rolled her eyes.

"I was just thinking about how good you have been about being grounded."

Kristina smiled brightly. Too brightly. She narrowed her eyes.

"What are you up to?"

Kristina's look changed to being offended.

"Mom! You can't be serious! I finally act like you want me to and you accuse me of being up to something? Geez! I can't do anything right around here. If I'm doing something you don't like I'm up to something and then if I do actually so something you like, I'm still up to something!"

Ok. She felt a little guilty now because she could see the point Kristina was making and it did make sense, but she knew her daughter too well. She knew Kristina was plotting something even if she hadn't acted on it yet, and she knew exactly what it was.

"First of all I don't know a decent parent on the planet that is ever ok with their child sneaking out of the house and coming back in the wee hours of the morning. Second, you're going to tell me that you aren't up to anything. Not one little thing? Nothing that might have to do with a certain Australian and a certain nurse?"

A guilty look crossed Kristina's face and she knew she had her.

"Kristina! I mean it. Jax has enough on his plate without worrying about the two of you trying to set him up before he's even divorced."

Carly was going into full on desperate mode. Jax couldn't even pick up his own kids anymore without fear of being attacked by the will of Carly. It was really quite pitiful. She was really only making a fool of herself the longer she clung to him. She was also surprised but relieved that it was only one way this time. Every other time this dance had gone between Carly and Jax, in which neither one was really ready to move on and it was really a matter of time before they were back together, but this time it was serious. Jax was ready to move on with his life; he couldn't stay in a toxic marriage anymore. And from what she had seen of him when they met at the hotel he was doing surprisingly well with it. Jax was looking more and more like the old Jax every day, the one that he had been when he had first met Carly. Full of hope and looking forward to the future, but that didn't mean he was anywhere near ready for a new relationship.

Kristina relaxed and went back to looking at the magazine she'd been looking at.

"I know that mom. I know that the divorce isn't finished yet and that Jax has a lot of adjusting to do, but you can't honestly expect him to be alone forever? I mean you want him to find someone who he can be truly happy with, don't you?"

Of course she did. She just didn't think her daughter should be the one to get involved in it. When Jax decided he was ready for a new relationship, it would be on his terms and be who he wanted it to be.

"Of course I do, but it's none of your business."

Kristina looked at her stubbornly.

"Kristina…"

At that moment her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"I think we've _finally_ got all the details hammered out. You know for two people who claimed they both wanted this divorce and sure took a long time for them to agree on everything."

Yeah, that would be Carly's doing. She made it as hard as she could, arguing on every step, fighting tooth and nail, everything she could to delay the finalization of the divorce. Now that they had agreed on everything, or more accurately, now that there was nothing left for Carly to reasonably argue about all that was left was the signing of the papers.

"Well it isn't over yet. **You** still have to get Carly to sign the papers."

"Well unless you magically gained a copy of this before I did, so does Jax."

"Yes, but my client hasn't been the one delaying and causing all the problems; yours has."

She could hear Diane grumble on the other end.

"Yes, believe me, I know. God I'm sure it'll be world war three just getting her to sign them."

Alexis chuckled.

"Good luck with that."

"Yeah, well why don't you just come meet me at the Metro Court and we'll just get it all over with now."

Basically knock the fight out now and end it quick.

"I'll have to call Jax. He has the kids this weekend and he might have plans. Look I'll call him now and let you know."

She looked up and saw Kristina leaving the house.

"Sorry got to go I have fugitive here attempting to escape."

With that she hung up and ran out the front door after Kristina.

"Where do you think you are going?"

Kristina looked at her, confused.

"Uhh…Molly just texted me, she's ready for me to pick her up from the library. You can see the text if you like. Obviously the phone call was work related and I didn't see the point in interrupting for something so silly."

Alexis nodded her head. That had been another slightly odd thing. It wasn't unusual for Molly to go to the library at least once a week and coming home with a pile of books, but she had gone every single day for the last two weeks and hadn't once come home with a book. When asked, Molly said she was doing a school project and needed some of the old newspapers to get some information she needed. She was worried about what the stress would do to her youngest daughter since she obviously hadn't been able to find what she was looking for.

"Ok and why don't you take her to get some ice cream or some sort of treat on the way home. She's been working so hard lately on that project I think she could use a little break."

Kristina smiled and nodded her head.

"Yeah, sure Mom no problem."

As Alexis watched her daughter leave the feeling that she was missing something came over her. She shook the feeling away. When it came to her daughters she was always missing something, but she figured if the worst thing they were doing was plotting the next relationship for her friend, there were worse things they could be doing.

She picked up her phone and dialed Jax's number. She hoped that he didn't have plans she would love to get this all over with tonight.

"Hey, what's up Alexis?"

"Do you have any plans tonight?"

* * *

Jax looked at himself and fingered the scar in the area behind his ear. He guessed the doctor had been right, if he was going to have a scar anywhere there wasn't a better place if he didn't want it to be too noticeable. Of course Jake had noticed it immediately; the kid had a great knack for observation. Jax told him a tale of some grand adventure that had given him the mark, one of the few stories he had told him that had been a lie. Jake had loved it.

He sighed contentedly. For the first time in a long time Jax was happy with the way things were going. All of the divorce decisions were finally finished, he was able to see his children regularly, and he had made a wonderful new friend in Elizabeth. It had, all in all, not been the worst month ever.

So much had happened in such a short time, but he was thankful for the way things were turning out. The biggest worry had been about Cameron after he had found out the truth about Lucky, but it seemed as if things were going to be ok, and he couldn't be prouder that it was mostly due to Morgan. He had noticed how close the two were getting one day and had asked about it. Morgan told him that he talked to Cameron about their dads. He said he told Cameron how his biological father, not Jax, had also hurt people sometimes and that he understood the feelings he was feeling. Morgan said that was all Cameron needed to open up.

He had been concerned, but Morgan assured him that he kept it all on a six-year-old level. He hadn't wanted to make it more complicated and more confusing for the other boy. Jax doesn't think he had ever been more proud than in that moment.

He had also gained a whole new appreciation for his children. Realizing how important it was that they truly knew that he loved them. He never wanted his children to ever feel the way Lucky had made Cameron and Jake feel and it encouraged him further to be the best father he could.

And all these new things, feelings, and experiences all stemmed from the same thing, and that was Elizabeth. Who would've thought that a simple meeting in a park could be the cause of so much change? It had brought him something that he realized he had always been lacking while married to Carly. Someone who he could just talk to, complain to, rant to, and not be judged or have that person force their opinions on him. Elizabeth just listened and then tried to truly help him. She would point out things he hadn't thought of or considered, or give him advice, and sometimes she would just let him go on and on and on, never once stopping him and just letting him get it all out. Most of it had been about Carly and her attempts to delay the divorce.

Honestly, he didn't know if he would've gotten through all of this without her. If she did nothing else she allowed Jax to focus on other things and keep his mind away from Carly.

Jax found that it was just a little easier every day.

* * *

Morgan packed his stuff in preparation for going over to stay with Jax for the weekend. He was excited. Today they were going to the park and were planning on meeting Elizabeth there. Morgan found that he really liked Elizabeth. She was really sweet and she was always very hospitable and kind and he could tell that she made Jax really happy. He was glad that Jax had been able to find someone who could help him through the divorce and he was definitely glad that Jax had been there to help out Elizabeth as well.

He felt bad about everything that had happened to her. It was kind of hard to wrap his head around, but it made him realize how fortunate it was that he had two fathers that cared for him, even if one was a mobster. Morgan felt the biggest sympathy for Cameron though. He could understand on some level after all his dad was Sonny Corinthos, and he did horrible things to people all the time. The event he thought about most with Cameron was Claudia's breakdown before she kidnapped Mom. He hadn't seen in either and like Cameron he had heard about it and it still made him sometimes to think about his dad saying those things and pushing Claudia that far. He was glad he hadn't been there, and the situation with his dad was always confusing, but at least something good could come out of it.

He hadn't told Mom about any of it though. He didn't think she would react well to the news that Jax was hanging out with another woman, even though that her and Jax were getting a divorce and Elizabeth was just a friend; it wouldn't matter to his Mom. He knew eventually she would find out, but today he just wanted to go to the park and enjoy the day with his step-father and his baby sister.

* * *

"Oh! Kristina you'll never believed what I found out. It's so heartbreaking."

Kristina sat down across from her sister at one of the empty tables in the library and looked her sister over. Molly looked very upset. She wondered what she found out?

"What is it?"

She watched as Molly took a deep breath.

"I found out what Jax and Elizabeth's history was. It was about five years ago. Jax was apparently married to this woman named Courtney and they wanted to have a baby but they couldn't because Courtney's eggs weren't fertile or something like that, so they decided to find someone who would be willing to be a surrogate for them, and Elizabeth ended up being the one they chose."

Kristina's eyes widened. That was unbelievable. Elizabeth had been pregnant with Jax's child? Wow.

"But what happened? Did she end up not being able to get pregnant or what?"

Molly shook her head and looked even more upset.

"The newspaper said that Jax was driving a car and Elizabeth was in it too, and then this crazy woman just ran into the middle of the road and Jax swerved to avoid hitting her and ended up crashing the car. Elizabeth miscarried a few days after that."

Wow. Of all things, she never expected that. That was horrible, but no wonder they were so close to one another. You don't go through something like that and then not have a connection with the other person.

"Oh my god that's horrible! Did they at least get justice? That woman went to jail or at least a nut house, right?"

Molly shook her head.

"The article said that she was gone before any help or police arrived and that she hadn't been caught yet. That was such a long time ago and the article was written just a few days after the miscarriage, so I guess it's possible that she could've been caught since then. I haven't looked yet, but I could. I can do it now."

Molly went back and started flipping through more papers, but Kristina put her hand on her shoulder to stop her. Molly had already done an awesome job and had technically accomplished what Kristina had asked her to do, and Mom was right. Molly had been way too stressed about this.

"Don't worry about it. Besides if she were caught it probably would've showed up when you were searching the bigger articles. I actually surprised it wasn't more publicized than that considering that it's Jax."

"Maybe Jax wanted it like that so Elizabeth wouldn't have to deal with all that mess after having just lost her baby. I mean Jax is rich so it probably wouldn't have hard for him to pay off the newspapers."

Kristina nodded. It was something that Jax could do and sounded like the kind of thing he would do.

"Man I can't believe that happened to them. Maybe that's why Mom doesn't want us involved in this. Maybe it would be too painful?"

"But you said they looked happy, Kristina. If it were too sad Jax wouldn't have sat with her, he would've found the quickest way to get out of there. No, I think this is our chance to give them a second chance. I mean who knows what could have happened if their baby had survived. I think it's meant to be and we have to help them get there.

This is why Kristina had told Molly. She was a romantic and never gave up on the notion of love and knew that she would keep Kristina on track if she started to back out. They had looked happy together and Kristina wanted to see them together, so it seemed as if they were going onward to the next step.

"Ok, ok, ok. So now how do we get them off the road of friends and on the road to the couple?"

* * *

"So how's everything holding up? Things still tense between you and Luke?"

Ethan gave Johnny a hopeless look.

"You know, I really honestly have no clue. He spends one minute apologizing for being angry at me for telling the police about Lucky, and that he knew I had made the right decision, and then the next he's angry because Lucky's in jail."

Johnny could understand. Lucky was still Luke's kid and honestly Johnny didn't think Lucky would do very well in jail. He just didn't strike Johnny as the kind of person who was tough enough to last; then again Johnny never thought Lucky was capable of assaulting a woman, so what did he know. Johnny for one was glad to see that Elizabeth hadn't dropped the charges. Ethan had been afraid that some sense of warped loyalty would feel that she had to, but Johnny figured it had more to do with the fact that Lucky had hurt too many of the other people in her life for her to forgive him.

Ethan had told him what Lucky had said about his children, and even knowing that neither of those children were biologically Lucky's, he didn't understand it. Not that he was overly surprised he never really expected much from father's after what his had done.

"Yeah well I wouldn't take it personally. From what you've told me Luke knows that you blame him for what and I'm sure on some level he agrees with you, so chances are a lot of that anger is more directed at himself than you."

Ethan banged his head against the back of the couch he was sitting on.

"I don't blame Luke I just…"

"You so totally do."

"It's not his fault what Lucky decided to do; I'm just…so angry that it was him that even gave Lucky the idea in the first place. You should have seen the look on Elizabeth's face when he said that and you know what, she didn't even fight back. She took because she thought she deserved this treatment, and I don't know maybe on some level she did. But do you have any idea the things that Lucky has done to her?"

Johnny shook his head and raised his eyebrows. Someone had obviously been holding a lot inside the last month.

"I didn't either until Jax came in that night. I coul…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. No offense, but are you sure you should be taking Jax's word on things. He is a little biased don't you think? Shouldn't you at least look into it and make sure everything he said was true before you take his word?"

"Johnny I'm upset, not stupid. That's exactly what I did. Why do you think I'm only bringing this up now? I could list all the things that had happened on both sides but we'd be here all day."

"Both sides? So you asked about Elizabeth too? So you at least know that there were mistakes all across the board then."

Ethan nodded and Johnny thought he looked tired.

"I learned so much about that, among other things."

Ethan just sat for a minute staring at nothing, and Johnny felt concern sneaking up on him for his friend.

"Hey if you need anything, like a place to crash for a while, you're welcome to stay here for a few day so you can get your head screwed back on straight."

"Maybe a few days away would do me some good."

* * *

Luke looked through the bars at his son.

"Dad! Please you have to find some way to get me out of here! I can't go to jail! I'm a cop! You know what they'll do to me in there. I'd be lucky if I lasted a week."

Luke felt his heart clench because he knew what Lucky said was true, but what could he do? And even if he could get Lucky out of jail, would it really be the right thing to do? Who knows what might've happened to Elizabeth if he hadn't been outside that door, and the thought that his Lucky, his boy who had so much of Laura in him, could hurt the people he cared about like that…

Ethan had no idea how right he had been when he said this was all his fault. It wasn't just the words Lucky had heard him say that night to Elizabeth; it was every decision Luke had ever made when it came to his children. How many times had he left when Lucky was growing up? He set the bar and Lucky just followed what he had seen.

He had to live with what he had done to his son. The only thing he could do was make sure that Lucky couldn't hurt anyone ever again.

Luke shook his head.

"I can't help you."

Lucky eyes turned desperate.

"Dad don't say that! Come on you always come up with something."

With his heart breaking he left the room.

"Dad! Don't just leave me here!" was the last thing he heard.

* * *

Carly knew this was her last chance. It was now or never. She had to find Jax and convince him to call off this ridiculous divorce. She knew this time she could be faithful. Yes, she made her mistakes, but she would do better this time. She knew she could. She loved Jax too much to let him go. She would just ask him for one last chance. That was it. One last chance for their family to stay together.

She knew from listening to Morgan talk to Joss, that they were here somewhere in the park. Now all she had to do is find out where.

"Oh no!"

She would recognize that voice anywhere. She wondered what he was playing with Josslyn for him to be exaggerating like that. She hadn't heard him use that voice since Morgan was just a little boy.

She hurried around a group of trees and stopped dead.

Carly couldn't believe it. Hoe dare he!

He was sitting on a blanket where they were clearly having a picnic and at the moment was being "tackled" by Elizabeth's children. Morgan was sitting a few feet away laughing, but what pissed her off the most was seeing Elizabeth holding **her** daughter. Carly's blood was boiling. How dare he bring her children around another woman. They weren't even officially divorced yet and here was already hanging around another woman. And Elizabeth!

Oh there was going to be hell to pay.

* * *

**AN: Alright! That's chapter seven. It would've been up yesterday, but I was half way through writing the chapter when I realized I hated all of it, and then I had to start all over. But it's done now! **

**Thank you to everyone for reading and let me know what you guys think!**


	8. Chapter 8 Onto Something

**AN: Thank you to:**

**sashahailee, Through the Mirror Darkly, Kimmy123, sweetgirl23, tanilc, sj, and guests for the review!**

**sashahailee for favoriting me and my story!**

** tanilc, Ygritte the Huntress, and Mommyzilla for following me/story!**

**So I was looking back at the dates trying to figure out where everyone was about this time and realized in September, which I think is where we are right now, Jason was dealing with the whole Brenda thing at the time. Which brought up some interesting question for me. **

**I had thought about not doing the whole Balkan thing, but then decided that Brenda could be…useful in proving a point. So though it kind of changed a scene I wanted to have in this chapter I think this is the way it's going to go. **

**Something's will be different because of what I have planned later on and it couldn't happen the way it did on the show. **

**Oh! And whenever it is that Franco comes back (I'll have to look it up) that'll be happening too most likely but this is all just a maybe thing. I could totally change my mind next chapter but we'll just have to see.**

**There will also be some more time skips after a couple of more chapters. I have plans for the holidays and I don't want to take too long to get there. But again I'm not sure exactly how many chapters until then. Just giving y'all the 411!**

**Something New**

**Chapter 8: Onto Something**

It was only because Michael had been near the park when Morgan had called and him and asked him if he wanted to come, that he got there just in time to stop their mom from doing something stupid. She looked like she was about to go into battle. Michael could see the anger in her eyes and knew he needed to stop her.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

She turned around quickly, but relaxed when she saw that it was just him. Then she looked confused.

"Michael? What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. He had a feeling his mother would only be more pissed to hear that Morgan had invited him here. Of course Morgan hadn't mentioned that Jax was here with another woman. No wonder his mom was pissed. The divorce wasn't even finalized yet and Jax was already hanging around another woman, and even worse bringing Morgan and Josslyn with him too.

"Morgan invited me, he said him and Jax were at the park. I was in the area, but he obviously forgot to mention some things."

His mom scoffed.

"You know I'm not surprised. Elizabeth has always been great at playing a victim. I'm sure she saw Jax was divorcing me and decided to take advantage of the situation. And for Jax to bring my children around that bitch…no I'm bringing an end to this now."

She started to stalk off toward where they were and Michael grabbed her arm. He didn't know if anything his mom just said was true, but he knew he couldn't let her go in there and yelling and screaming at everyone like she always did when she was angry or hurt.

"Mom you can't. Look at Morgan he's having so much fun right now. I don't think he would understand why you are so angry, and it isn't good for him to hear you and Jax fighting, and if he likes Elizabeth you'll only succeed in making it look like you're this crazy monster."

His mother pouted and stamped her foot.

"I know but…"

"And what about Elizabeth's kids, they…"

His mom took a giant step forward and shook her finger.

"I don't give a damn about Elizabeth of her kids right now. I'm sure she's only using them to keep Jax around or something; like she did with Lucky."

Ok now he knew it was a good thing that he was here. His mom was way too angry and unreasonable at the moment.

"I was only going to say that if that was your kids over there and Elizabeth was in your place, and she came and started s raising hell in front of them you would be pissed and you wouldn't stand for it because it's wrong."

His mom looked at him with pride and guilt. He breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed as if she was going to listen.

She turned back to look at the scene behind her and Michael followed her gaze. The youngest of Elizabeth's children was now sitting in Jax's lap and seemed to be asking for something. Whatever it was caused Jax to laugh.

He saw his mom's hand clench into a fist. She turned back to him with a tight smile.

"I know you're right. I need to calm down and then Jax and I can talk about it tonight when we meet at the Metro Court to sign the divorce papers. And you reminded me that I needed to go do something anyways, so I'll see you later."

She gave him a hug and then left.

Michael had the feeling the last thing she was going to do was cool down.

* * *

"So how do you think this is going to go?"

Alexis lifted her eyebrow and rested back on the stool she was sitting on at the bar and took a sip of her drink.

"How else could it go? Carly's fought this divorce every way she could without outright saying she didn't want it anymore. I'm sure all hell's about to break loose."

Diane shook her head. Carly was so aggravating as a client.

"I don't understand why we're waiting til now for them to get this…explosion of emotions out. I can say that with Carly it has only gotten worse as time has gone by. I think she's becoming very desperate."

Diane knew she was. This was why she always dreaded Carly's divorces, it was always a rollercoaster and half the time was spent actually trying to undermine Diane's attempts to help her by getting back together with Jax. Those two actually took up half a drawer with all the un-signed divorce papers they had. She was just thankful that one part the Jack's couple actually seemed to be sincere about their intentions instead of wasting both hers and Alexis's time. She just wished it was her client.

Alexis shrugged.

"I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. Usually those two can't stay away from each other when they're getting a divorce, but I guess that just shows exactly how done Jax is. You know he was the one that actually called me and told me that Carly was being impossible. That never happens. Usually I have to drag things like that out of him."

It was interesting and it brought up even more interesting questions; like what was Jax doing with all that time that he was no longer spending at home? She had hardly seen Jax at the hotel, where she had been frequently in the last month.

"So I guess you've seen a lot of him recently though, given the circumstances. It can't be easy on his part. He did love Carly."

Alexis frowned slightly and tilted her head.

"Actually I haven't seen all that much of Jax. Only when I've picked and dropped the children off, so probably just a little more than you have."

It was her turn to raise her eyebrows.

"And you don't find that weird?"

Alexis sat up straighter and narrowed her eyes.

"Jax is allowed to handle this however he wants."

"Look no need to get all defensive. I just find it odd that he hasn't come to you for advice or a shoulder or something. And if he hasn't been here with you and he hasn't been here at the hotel than where has he been?"

Something flashed across Alexis's face and Diane knew she knew something and was hiding it.

"What do you know?"

Alexis shook her head.

"It's nothing."

Diane gave her a disbelieving look.

"Really! I shouldn't have even thought about it. It's just the delusions of two teenage girls who have nothing better to do than fantasize about the love lives of everyone who isn't happily married and finding true love."

Now that would make sense. Why wouldn't Jax come to Alexis unless he was already getting help from someone else?

"And who do Kristina and Molly believe are meant for each other this week?"

Alexis groaned.

"Kristina saw them in the park together and now she's convinced that they're meant for each other or something like that."

"Ok, but who?"

"Jax and Elizabeth. Can you believe that? He's not even officially divorced yet and they're already trying to set him up!"

Diane contemplated for a minute.

"I kind of like it. I think they would make a strong couple together, and lord knows those two could use someone normal for once."

Alexis looked at her in disbelief.

"Not you too!"

* * *

Sam was just starting to relax when she heard a banging on the door.

"Jason! Open up! You aren't going to believe what I have to tell you!"

She sighed. It was bad enough Jason had to leave her to protect Brenda, but now she had to deal with Carly on top of it. God what did that woman want now? Probably more whining about her Jax's divorce, as if she hadn't done it enough the last month. Sometimes she just wished Jason would for once not indulge her.

She went over to the door and pulled it open, deciding she was going to be as unfriendly and stand offish as possible so maybe, _just _maybe Carly would leave her alone.

"What do you want, Carly?"

Carly glared at her, as if she was doing something wrong by answering her own door, and then waltzed right in as if she owned the place.

"Where's Jason? I really need to talk to him. He's going to want to hear what I have to say."

Carly had her "I'm about to drop a bombshell" look on her face and Sam was glad that Jason wasn't here. He didn't need any more of Carly's crap or problems dumped on him. Carly was a grown woman; if she couldn't take care of her own problems than she needed to let natural selection take its course.

She closed the door and turned around to face Carly.

"You know for some reason, I really doubt that."

Carly gave her an ugly look.

"Where's Jason?"

Sam rolled her eyes.

"He's not here Carly. You know he does have other obligations to attend to in his life besides you. You know things that are **actually **important."

"Like what? You? Please, you might have managed to worm you way back into his life, but I promise it won't take long for him to remember why he dumped your faithless ass."

Sam couldn't help but laugh at that one. Oh that was rich coming from Carly. This coming from the woman whose marriage was over because she couldn't stop herself sleeping with another man, multiple times at that.

"That's hilarious coming from you Carly. I'm sorry but remind me again exactly whose relationship is ruined? Don't come here to yell at me because your husband finally got tired of the wool _you_ pulled over his eyes, and finally saw you for the skanky, faithless, spineless bitch that **you** are."

Carly looked murderous as she stepped closer to Sam.

"You don't know anything."

"What's there to know Carly? You cheated on your husband! And then you come over here to Jason's house and try to make him fix everything! What is wrong with you? You know, you go around here always yelling at everyone for not owning up to whatever it is they've done all the while always preaching about how you always own your mistakes. Well you know what Carly after all these years I'm calling bullshit. You've **never** owned up to your mistakes and the massive amounts of damage that you've caused many of the people here. You have never once ever admitted that what you did was wrong or that you wouldn't do it again because you know you would. I'm glad Jax is through with you and hasn't been falling for any of your **pathetic** attempts to talk to him. Anything you would say to him to try and get him would only be a lie because you will never put him first. It's bad enough he had deal with you always putting Jason before him, but Sonny should've been no where the top of that list!"

Carly eyes flashed and she had a hurt look on her face and it brought her so much satisfaction.

"Jax knew that Sonny and Jason were a part of my life when he agreed to marry me, Sam! He knew exactly what he was getting into."

Sam shook her head. Carly was delusional.

"There's a difference between being a part of and being number one, _Carly._ And I guarantee you Jax hadn't a clue what he was getting into or he would've run in the opposite direction. Because, and trust me on this, no one goes looking for that much heartache and pain Carly. And look even then you're making excuses! Even if Jax had agreed to always be at the bottom of the list of people you care about, even if he was ok with Sonny and Jason being in your life, how in the _hell_ does that excuse the many times you've cheated on him!?"

Tears started to form and Carly's eyes and it was all she could do not to gag. She was so fake.

"You know what? I'm done with this conversation. I came here to tell Jason to get control of that skank Elizabeth, but obviously I'll have to take care of it myself."

Carly started to leave but Sam got in her way.

"Wait, wait, wait. What are you talking about? What does Elizabeth have to do with any of this?"

Carly smirked. She probably thought she'd just won her over to her side.

"Jax and I aren't even divorced yet and she's already sinking her greedy claws into him!"

Sam scoffed.

"Oh don't even pretend you care because you're concerned for Jax. No you're pissed because **Jax** is hanging out with another woman because how could **dare **he care about a woman who isn't you."

Sam didn't know the situation. For all she knew she saw Jax and Elizabeth in the same room and assumed they were there together; that's how crazy she was. And Sam was starting to like Elizabeth. Even after all that had happened between them she found it somewhat surprising Elizabeth could try to get past it. If someone had watched her child be kidnapped and done nothing she didn't think she could ever get past or forgive that person.

She was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, and even if Jax and Elizabeth were hanging out that didn't mean anything. They were two grown adults who could do what they wanted. The only thing that concerned her was the Jake bit…

"Did you actually see him with Elizabeth and Jake, alone?"

Sam watched as Carly bit her lip and wondered what she was hiding now.

"He wasn't exactly alone. Morgan and Joss were with him too."

Sam shook her head. She should've known it was just Carly being Carly.

"So they were having a play date. You know what I can't hear any more of this. You've gone pass the point of being ridiculous, Carly. This is just sad, even for you."

Sam went and opened the door and pointed out.

Carly just stood there, glaring.

"Carly, I mean it. Much like Jax, I'm tired of this and I'm done having this conversation with you. Now get out!"

Carly stalked past her and out the door, and then as Sam closed the door behind her she let out a sigh of relief.

Sam was so grateful Jason hadn't been here to hear what Carly had to say. She knows Jason wouldn't have put up with Carly talking about Elizabeth like that, but she's afraid that it would be the mention of Jax that would have Jason running out the door.

If Carly was right, fat chance, but if she was that would be a hard pill for Jason to swallow, knowing the man he hated would be taking care of his son.

It brought up another question for Sam though. Where was Lucky in all of this?

* * *

Jax sat back contentedly after finishing the last of his pie. After spending all day at the park they had decided to go to Kelly's for some desert. All three boys had been excited and had then proceeded to hurry Elizabeth in everything they did, which of course only made him and Elizabeth do everything aggravatingly slow to tease them. What they hadn't expected, but were pleased by, were the boys then proceeding to help them clean up their picnic area.

It had been a wonderful day. They watched the boys play, and then he read to Josslyn and played with her for a while before she took a nap. Shortly after the boys came back over and then wanted him to play with some baseball with them. So he and Jake and Morgan and Cameron were on teams and they played for a bit, all the while Elizabeth cheering and when Joss woke up she just seemed to join in on the excitement.

They had lunch shortly after that and while they were eating Jake wanted to hear another adventure story and of course he complied, telling him of the grand adventure of when he went to collect the Dead Man's Hand, exaggerated where needed and G rated when needed as well. It was one that ended up catching the attention of Morgan and Cameron too, and by the end they were all sitting around him listening intently. He naturally ended it on a more positive note. It must have been the comment about being unbeatable because the next thing he knew he was being tackled by Cam and Jake, Morgan's laughter ringing through. They ended up having a mock fight where Jax surrendered.

It had been a day of joy and laughter and he had enjoyed every second of it. He looked around the table now and couldn't help but smile. Josslyn was dozing off in her carrier that he was slowly rocking. Morgan was entertaining Cameron and Jake with his own stories. And then his gaze turned towards Elizabeth and the greatest happy and contented feeling hit him. Somehow this all felt right to him. It was like he was supposed to be here and honestly he couldn't think of anywhere else he'd rather be. It had been too long since he felt like this.

Elizabeth turned her gaze towards him and she smiled back.

"You know I hate to do this because you look so happy right now, but it's already seven-thirty. If you don't leave soon you're going to be late."

He felt sorrow grip his heart. That was right. Tonight was the night he and Carly ended their marriage officially.

She must have seen the change because she softly grabbed his hand and gave it a slight squeeze and a soft smile.

And that was all he needed.

He stood up slowly and then went said goodbye to each of them knowing they would be asleep before he came back to Elizabeth's and pick up Joss and Morgan. They had decided it was probably for the best if Morgan and Joss weren't around in case things got ugly at the signing, which he feared they would. Carly had been making things surprisingly difficult and he wasn't sure what to expect from her.

Elizabeth stood up and then gave him a hug.

"Good luck."

He smiled softly down.

"Thanks. I'm going to need it."

* * *

Ding!

Kristina stepped off the elevator in a hurry, eager to get to her destination. She hoped he wouldn't shut the door in her face. She knew that they had agreed not to see each other again but she couldn't think of anyone else to ask that would keep it secret and be honest with her.

She had dropped Molly off at the house and then claimed she had left her phone at Kelly's where they had gotten ice cream and had to drive back to get it. She felt bad for lying to Molly especially since they were on the same team, but she didn't want Molly knowing she was digging deeper. For some reason she just couldn't let go of the fact that the woman responsible for killing Elizabeth and Jax's child had never been caught.

She felt they needed justice and she wanted to get that for them. Johnny could do that.

She made her way to his door and was about to knock when the door opened.

"So I'll be back late…Kristina? What are you doing here?"

Kristina looked up at Ethan in shock. She hadn't expected him to be here.

Johnny came up behind Ethan and a look of annoyance crossed his face.

"Look go on and do what you were going to do. I doubt she's here for you since no one knows you're here."

Ethan looked unsure and turned to her to say something but she cut him off.

"Not that I don't love talking to you Ethan, but Johnny's actually right I came here to see him."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean last time you two hung out you both almost died."

"Look I'm not here to start trouble I just need to ask Johnny a question. I'm not trying to be rude but I am kind of in a hurry. I'm actually grounded and I told Molly I was going to Kelly's and she'll be suspicious if I'm not back soon. Thank you for being concerned though."

With that she gave him a hug and then entered Johnny's pent house and closing the door behind her.

Johnny didn't seem happy to see her.

"Please don't be mad. I know we promised not to hang around each other anymore, but I really need your help with something."

Johnny shook his head.

"Kristina…"

"Please Johnny? You're the only one I can ask to do this. You're the only one I would trust to find what I need and tell me the truth about it."

Johnny gave a long sigh.

"Fine, fine. What is it I'm doing now? Espionage?"

She squealed in delight and gave him a hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Johnny pulled away and then looked at her seriously.

"So what is it you need. Is somebody giving you trouble? Is my father?"

He looked so concerned and she felt a little guilty. She hadn't meant to worry him. Sometime she forgot what it was he actually had to deal with every day.

"No it's nothing like that, but it is important to me. I just learned that my mom's friend and a friend had a baby together but it died before it was born because of an accident that was caused by some lunatic running into the middle of the road. Look I can't say much more than that but it's really important to me. I don't know why but I feel this need to find out, but I know I can't ask any questions to anyone without raising suspicions and I don't know if anyone would be honest with me. I don't know why but I can feel this is big."

* * *

Johnny wasn't sure this was a good idea. Who knew what can of worms she could be opening? Looking at her he knew she wouldn't give up though. If he said no then she would go onto someone else and someone else until she found someone who was willing to help her and what if she got involved with the wrong people? What if she ended up asking for help from someone who knew what happened?

"I don't like this Kristina. What if you don't like what I have to say? Some things are better kept a secret. Maybe you should leave this one alone."

Kristina seemed to deflate and she looked crushed, like he had taken away her last hope. So she really meant that she only trusted him to do it?

For some reason that honored him.

"I already said I'd do it. I just wanted to make sure you really wanted to do this. Do you?"

Her eyes brightened and she nodded.

"Alright, but I need more exact details the he and she if I'm going to help"

* * *

"Fine! I'll let it go if you tell me why you think it's such a bad idea!"

Alexis opened her mouth to retort when she saw the object of their conversation come up behind Diane.

"Is everything all right here ladies?"

Jax looked mildly concerned and she didn't blame him. She was sure they all expected this to end badly and the last thing he needed was the two lawyers to be at each other's throats.

Diane shook her head.

"No we were simply having a…difference of opinion on a personal topic. Nothing for _you_ to be concerned about" she said while giving Alexis a look.

Jax decided to sit down beside her.

"As long as it won't add anymore tension to the situation."

"Of course not Alexis and I are more than capable of being professionals or we wouldn't still be doing our jobs."

Diane looked about ready to tease Jax some more when Carly entered the room. She walked briskly over and sat down beside Diane.

Carly tried to avoid looking at Jax as she entered the room. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to hide the rage she had bubbling beneath the surface. She knew that there was nothing she could do right now. If Jax wanted to be with Elizabeth, fine. But she would make sure to make his life as difficult as possible.

* * *

**AN: By the was does everyone know that Carly is the one who ran into the street? Or was it just covered up and then never talked about ever again?**

**Thanks for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9 Coversations

**AN: Thank you to:**

**jennymar, sashahailee, Kimmy123, trini12180, Ember1313, Mommyzilla, Krissy07, sweetgirl23, and all my guests for their reviews!**

**Ember1313 for following my story!**

**3-left-turns and shariebery for adding my story to their favorites!**

**And thank you to everyone for their help on the Carly thing! It was greatly appreciated!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own GH.**

**Something New**

**Chapter 9: Conversations**

It was as Carly was getting ready to sign the last page that Jax couldn't take it anymore. There was something _wrong_. He could see Carly was upset, but she wasn't saying anything. She hadn't said one word the entire time.

He reached over and grabbed the page from her.

"Stop."

Alexis and Diane stared at him as if he had grown an extra head.

Alexis grabbed his arm.

"What do you think you're doing?"

He shook her off.

Carly was leaning back in her chair; still refusing to look in his direction. What bothered him was that she was clearly angry with him. He knew what it probably was too and he wasn't going to wait for hurricane that was Carly to hit.

"I thought this is what you wanted. Us happily signing divorce papers."

Carly now turned to face him and the rage he saw there caught him off guard, but it only reinforced what he thought the problem was. He knew that he wouldn't be able to keep Carly from knowing about his and Elizabeth's friendship, but he had hoped it would be later when she had finally accepted the divorce. Looking at her now he couldn't think of anything else she would be so angry over, and knew that her keeping it to herself meant she was planning something, and he wasn't going to have it.

"You're angry. Why?"

Carly's glared intensified and she sat forward.

"Do I have something to be angry about?"

Jax knew she thought she did.

"No."

She lost it.

"You don't think I have the right to be upset that you brought **my** children around that man stealing bitch."

Fury rose at her words, and he had to bite his tongue to keep from responding in a harsh manner.

"Elizabeth is just a friend, Carly. She's been through a lot in the last month. I'm…"

Carly shook her head, her look only becoming more venomous, and stood up.

"Yes, poor, poor Elizabeth. In case you haven't noticed she always has a crisis that she needs to have fixed right then! She's a manipulative bitch he who isn't above using her children to get what she wants. Look at Lucky! That poor man…"

The mention of Lucky made him see red.

"Don't you dare defend that man to me, Carly. You have no idea what he's done to Elizabeth and those boys. Lucky has put Elizabeth through more grief than she has ever deserved."

Carly laughed in disbelief.

"You are such a hypocrite! You're divorcing me for cheating on you; Elizabeth slept with her fiancés brother! Tell me why it's ok for Elizabeth to do whatever the hell she wants, but I…"

"But what? When you feel like sleeping with Sonny and I'm not ok with that? Key word of that last sentence was fiancé Carly. Elizabeth and Lucky hadn't made vows yet."

Carly had a look of disbelief on her face and was opening her mouth to interrupt, but **he** wasn't done yet.

"And at least she's actually sorry for the pain she caused. When I ran into her at the park, she was torturing herself over the mistakes she had made. For the first time in years I met someone who was actually sorry for how **their** actions affected those around them. She was genuinely sorry for hurting Lucky, Nikolas, and her boys. She didn't just focus on how it affected her. You want to talk about someone who puts on a poor pitiful me façade, go look in a mirror Carly."

"I told you I was sorry, Jax! I didn't mean to hurt you! I…"

He had already made the mistake of letting some of the anger, betrayal, and pain that had built up over the years out, and now he was lost in the wave of it.

"You were only thinking about you, Carly! It's the only thing you ever think of. Hell sometimes…"

And he made himself stop. He had been about to cross a line that couldn't be uncrossed. The moment he questioned Carly's mothering he would lose everything. She would never let him see his children.

"Sometimes what, Jax!? I know you weren't about to tell me that I ever put my kids second to anything. I love my kids. I'm not like Elizabeth who uses her kids to get the men in her life to fall all over her, and I never expected you to be one of those men!"

They were both standing and the entire restaurant was staring at them at this point, and it only seem to further enrage him that she was saying these things about Elizabeth in front of strangers; where she couldn't even defend herself.

"If anyone used those kids it was Lucky! He knew Elizabeth would always be willing to forgive him and keep him in their lives as long as he was the father of those children. Elizabeth took Lucky back and became engaged to him because she knew exactly what kind of man he was. She knew that if she had said no then Lucky would've gone off and had a pity party and she would've been left all alone to look after those boys. She did everything she could to keep her family together but she didn't want to be with him, and I don't blame her. His actions after everything came out proved what kind of man he was!"

"How was he supposed to act? He loved Elizabeth and then she went and slept with his brother! Was he just supposed to be ok with that!? He was just figuring out that his wife was nothing but a faithless slut. Who could be around someone after that?"

"Yeah reminds me of someone."

He really hadn't meant to say it. In any other situation he never would have. It was just that Carly had basically done the same thing and here she was crucifying Elizabeth for the same things.

Her face was shocked and covered in pain.

He covered his eyes with his hand and sighed. Regardless of what he had known, he had hoped the night would go differently.

Carly stalked up to him.

"You want to go be with that skank, be my guest Jax. But if I were you I'd keep an eye on her, Elizabeth has wondering eyes, and I wouldn't be surprised if she made someone else take care of a kid who isn't actually theirs."

With that she ripped the last page from his hand, signed it, threw it towards Diane, and then stalked off toward the elevator.

Alexis came up behind him and set her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. She looked so concerned.

"Jax, I'm sorry. I know you didn't really want this to happen like that."

He shook her off. Honestly he wasn't even all that upset. He felt guilty for saying what he said because it embarrassed her in front of everyone, but he unexpectedly felt great. It was as if with this last confrontation, whatever it was between Carly and him had finally broke.

He smiled at her and grabbed the paper to sign it. He signed them quickly and then handed them to her.

"Don't be. It wasn't like we didn't know this was going to happen. I didn't expect mine and Elizabeth's friendship to be an issue this early, but it's probably for the better. At least I can tell Elizabeth to be on alert."

He suddenly became a little panicked. What if that was where Carly was headed?

"You don't think she's go over there now do you? I left Morgan and Joss over there so they wouldn't have to be anywhere near this. I have to go. Thank you both for everything you've done!"

* * *

Molly looked down at the list. She had a feeling that their putting Elizabeth and Jax were going to be a little different from the usual attempts. She doesn't think it'll be as difficult as Mac and her mom, but also not like when they try and help Jason give Sam something romantic. If Kristina was right there was already something there, so they would just have to make them act on it. Whatever they planned would have to focus on the more romantic side of things, otherwise they would stay stuck in their friendship phase. It couldn't be anything too fancy though. They needed to make this a natural transition.

They should probably go with plan number 3 then. They had to implant the idea in their heads before they could go any further. Now all she had to do was find someone to invite Elizabeth and Jax to dinner together for some reason. Hmm…who could they get in on this that would play along?

Just then Kristina came through the door looking quite pleased.

"Hey, Kristina? Who do you think could get both Elizabeth and Jax to dinner together under the illusion of eating with them? I can't think of anyone that would invite both Jax and Elizabeth without it seeming odd."

Kristina tilted her head and thought.

"That's a good point. Actually it might seem less suspicious if we get someone to invite Elizabeth out and someone else to invite Jax out and just have it be in the same restaurant and then just have both parties call and cancel. That way it looks like it's just a coincidence and well get them to eat dinner together in a more grown up and fancier set up. It'll have to be somewhere where there will be couples but not overly romantic. Somewhere to just suggest the idea."

It was perfect! Molly could feel herself getting excited again. She just knew that these two were going to be the one for each other.

"Alright so who do we get to ask? Who can we trust?"

Kristina smiled.

"I know exactly what we're going to do."

* * *

Sam arrived at the Haunted Star to find Ethan sitting at the bar holding a drink. He seemed to be staring into it hoping to find answers at the bottom of it.

"Been a rough week?" she asked as she took a seat next to him. She didn't know much about the other man except that he occasionally did some leg work for Johnny when he needed the extra cash, but he didn't look too good and with her past with Lucky and everything he helped her with after the break up with Jason she figured the least she could do was help his brother if he needed it, and maybe he knew where Lucky was.

"More like a rough month. If you're here looking for Luke you're wasting your time. He just left. Him and Tracy just left to take some time away from Port Charles for a while. Most likely until the trial's over."

"Trial?"

Ethan looked up in surprise.

"You don't know? Well I guess that isn't too surprising. I'm sure Jax can pay off whoever he wants to keep this low-key. I'm sure he doesn't want to put Elizabeth and her boys through anything more than they've already been."

"Wait. What happened to Elizabeth?"

Were the boys ok? God if something had happened to them she didn't know what Jason would do.

She watched as he swallowed the rest of his drink and then lightly pushed the glass away and turned to face her.

"They will be. Jax has been amazing throughout the entire thing from what I can see and from what I've heard Morgan's been really helpful with Cameron, so yeah eventually I think everything will be ok. It'll just take a little time. You know, even with all I've learned I still can't believe Lucky could do something like this."

Lucky? He hurt Cameron and Elizabeth? No, surely not. Lucky had always…and then she remembered moments. Moments where Lucky would be so _angry _and she thought it was always an understandable rage, but it seemed like it was always just underneath the surface.

"What did he do exactly? I mean even if he hated Elizabeth, the Lucky I know would never hurt his children. Even when he found out Jake wasn't his he still stuck around and promised to take care of them and loved them and he did."

Ethan's fingers twitched closer to the glass, as if wanting to take a drink right then.

"Yeah, well apparently that was the problem. Lucky decided he didn't want to play daddy anymore. Not that he was apparently going to tell anyone about this. Hell if Jax hadn't come over to confront him, Elizabeth still wouldn't have an answer for her children as to why their father isn't around."

Jax? So there was something to what Carly was saying then. Not that it made the woman any less crazy. At this point it was none of her business who Jax chose to spend his time with, and if he wanted to spend it with Elizabeth, well there were worse people he could choose.

"But that's where it all went to hell anyway. Jax confronted him about how he was treating the boys and I can honestly say I've never seen the man so angry before. Not that I blame him. Did you know Lucky was going to say that Cameron and Jake were mistakes? Like the world was worse off because they were in it. It makes me sick."

This Jax/Elizabeth thing seemed to be coming from nowhere, but if it gave the woman someone to lean on after the whole Nikolas thing then she was all for it. Again she understood what it felt like having slept with Ric who had been married to her mom at the time. She had eventually found that person in Lucky for a while. She just hoped it ended better with Jax.

"What did Jax do?"

Ethan chuckled darkly.

"He slammed his fist into Lucky's face. I couldn't believe it and I don't think he meant to either."

His voice immediately became more serious.

"It was the only reason Lucky was able to recover and fight back. He ended up hitting him over the head with a vase. God he could've killed him! My own brother could've killed the man that was just trying to help someone who everyone turned their back on. After everything Lucky has put Elizabeth through the years, none of them would even give her the time of day when she came in here and _begged_ for their help. And the worse part! I just stood there and watched it all happen. I sat here and watch them destroy her and did nothing and I sat here and saw what Lucky was going to do and I just watched!"

By this point he was standing up and pacing and Sam was still trying to understand everything that had happened.

"Ethan, you couldn't have known that things were going to turn out this way; in fact out of everyone here you would be the last one to know. You did nothing wrong by staying out of a situation you already admitted you didn't know anything about. Now what exactly happened with Jax?"

He just seemed defeated.

"They were fighting and Lucky found a vase that had fallen to the floor and smashed against Jax's head. The doctors were afraid that he might be deaf in his right ear, but everything turned out all right in the end, I think. And Luke can still only barely look at me when he sees me because I turned Lucky into the cops."

Of course Luke wouldn't want the cops involved. He was always about doing things outside the law.

"He didn't take into consideration the fact that Lucky was still out there and could've hurt someone else if you hadn't? I mean what if he had gone to Elizabeth after he found out why Jax was there?"

Ethan avoided her eyes.

"He did."

Sam felt her eyes widen. Oh my god.

"He showed up at her place and started yelling at her and then he grabbed her and threatened her. She managed to escape, and thank god Luke had been there. At least he realized that Elizabeth could be in danger. Then Mac arrived and arrested Lucky and Luke said he was so pissed off at Lucky. He said Jax arrived shortly after and he was able to calm Elizabeth down and get her to go to the hospital."

Ethan was quiet for a minute, a minute she hardly noticed due to her own shock. She had been in relationships like that before, where she had feared for her life, about what the other person could do to her, and to know that Lucky, a man she had trusted, was capable of something like that…it was too much.

"You know I saw her when they brought her in. She already had bruises on her arms where Lucky had grabbed her. They were so dark and ugly and it was the perfect impression of his hand."

"What about the kids? Where they there when this was happening?"

If he hurt Cam or Jake there wouldn't be anything she could do when Jason found out. Jason wouldn't stand for someone to hurt them, but especially not someone he had trusted to protect and love his son. This was already going to hit him hard.

"It is a miracle that Elizabeth had happened to call Nikolas the day before and managed to arrange a play date for them and Spencer together, and that Nikolas had decided to hold it a Wyndemere so Elizabeth could have a day off. It almost didn't do much. Cameron ended up finding out what had really happened when he heard Mac talking in the park."

Sam closed her eyes. She felt her heart constrict in pain for the other woman. She was sure it had to be hard enough to deal with her own emotions on the situation, but then having to deal with that with Cameron…it was a wonder the woman hadn't collapsed.

"I think the only good thing that's come out of this is that Jake doesn't remember Lucky since he was too little when Lucky stopped coming around and that Elizabeth and Jax seemed to have established a friendship."

Sam couldn't help but think that if Carly had known all this had happened and still come to Jason to bitch, she was going to kick her ass.

"Well then I guess it's like you said, everything looks like it's going to turn out ok and that at least that answers my questions. But I think Elizabeth isn't the only one who needs someone to talk to. You sound as if you could use a sounding board. If I were you I'd find one because if you keep using the alcohol the way you are, well you don't want to end up like your brother."

She would have stayed longer, but she didn't know Ethan that well and didn't think she would be all that much help to him. Besides she did have a client that she had to meet for her and Spenillie's P.I. business.

* * *

"You _did_ see how mad he became when Carly insulted her, right?"

Alexis rolled her eyes.

"Yes, but that's the kind of person that Jax is. He's very defensive of his friends, and obviously he and Elizabeth are friends now, which really isn't all that surprising."

Diane felt her eyebrows rise. She happened to think two people who had never really spent any time together becoming close friends so quickly was odd. Besides she thought that anger ran a little too deep and was felt too strongly for there not be any extra feelings there, regardless of whether Jax noticed them or not.

"And why is that?"

Alexis sighed.

"I don't even know why I bother trying to argue with you people. You're only going to use whatever you have at your disposal to prove a point. Jax and Elizabeth do have a history together, though in retrospect it is very sad."

Diane suddenly felt her confident feelings for these two fly out the window. She just didn't want to be back three years from now filing new divorce papers.

"Well? What happened?"

Alexis's eyes had a shade of sadness in them.

"Jax was married to Courtney and they wanted to have a child but found out they couldn't because her eggs were infertile. So they started looking for a surrogate. Simultaneously, Elizabeth needed to find a way to pay for Lucky's medical bills because Lucky didn't want to ask Nikolas if they could borrow the money, and Elizabeth heard about what Courtney and Jax wanted. Eventually it was decided that Jax would pay off their debts in return for Elizabeth to have and carry a child that him and Courtney could have. Courtney and Jax ended up getting divorced and after some debate Elizabeth and Jax decided to share custody of their child. It didn't matter though. One night Jax and Elizabeth were in a car and Jax was driving and some lunatic just jumped out in front of the road. Elizabeth ended up losing the child."

Diane drew in a breath. That was some heavy history even if it had only been a few months, but it would make their friendship make even more sense.

"That's a strong connection. Is that why you're so against the two of them together? You think something tragic already happened once that it's bound to happen again?"

Alexis shook her head.

"I don't really have a problem with them being together. I just don't want Jax jumping into a relationship just as he's getting out of one. It won't do either of them any good. I like Elizabeth and Jax is my best friend. I don't want them hurting each other, and I don't believe in other people meddling in other's affairs."

Dian smirked.

"We'll see."

Something told her that by the end of all of this she would be their biggest supporter and meddler.

* * *

Elizabeth was just putting Josslyn back down when Jax came to the door. She was surprised to see that he actually seemed pretty ok, if not a little worried.

"Hey! How did it go? Everything ok?"

She watched as his eyes swept the room and then as he relaxed and his eyes came back to her and he smiled.

"About as well as we expected."

She smiled back.

"So were the casualties severe?"

"Nah. Just our pride and dignity, but I find that I don't care what other people think if I don't know any of them. Besides half that hotel's mine so if I want to hold my divorce conversation there then I will."

She was surprised at how well he looked. It seemed as if with the signing a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He seemed a lot more carefree. Then again if she had been chained to Carly for five years she'd probably feel the same.

"That's good. You just looked concerned when you walked in so I thought maybe something had happened."

She went sat down and the couch and motioned for him to follow.

"Yeah, well I was afraid that maybe Carly was going to show up. I guess she saw us at the park or something and she decided to bring it up."

Jax eyes had taken on a harder edge. Carly must have said something that had really made him mad, she hadn't seen that look since the whole…Lucky thing.

"I've heard the same things from Carly multiple times. Whatever it is she said I wouldn't even waste time on it. She is going to think what she's going to think. I've just learned to ignore her."

Jax smiled but she could tell this time it was distracted. She could tell he was wanting to ask something, but that he wasn't sure how.

"Look if Carly brought up something from the past that you aren't sure about just ask. I'm not intentionally keeping anything from you; just ask."

He hesitated for a second longer before beginning.

"I'm only asking because Lucky had said something similar to what Carly had implied, and when Lucky had said it I thought he was just being paranoid but now I think perhaps there's something I've missed. Lucky said that he didn't want to play daddy to two children that weren't his. What did he mean? Is Jake not Lucky's?"

Of course that spiteful bitch would bring it up. She had always been pissed that Jason and her had a child together.

She stood up suddenly, realizing what Carly may have done.

"Jax did Carly say that? I mean out there in front of everyone?"

Confusion crossed his face but he shook his head.

"She didn't even outright say he wasn't, but like I said it more reminded me of what Lucky had said."

She felt her heartbeat start to slow. Thank god. She thought after all this time…well it wasn't like most of the people she knew didn't know, but Jason's enemies didn't and that was what mattered.

She sat back down on the couch and she found it hard to look at Jax.

"You remember when we talked about Lucky cheating on me with Maxie and I said that what I did was just as bad? Well that one night stand I had with Jason that night is what made me pregnant with Jake. Jason is technically Jake's biological father."

He was shocked. She remembered being as shocked when she found out she was pregnant.

"Does Jason know?"

She nodded.

"Well not at first. Lucky had found out I was pregnant and he was getting back into rehab and just starting his recovery and I was afraid that if I told him the child wasn't his that he would go right back to taking the pain pills; the baby had given him hope and I hadn't wanted to take that away from. I didn't even tell Jason until the Hostage Crisis and that was because he had literally just saved our lives. I had to tell him. He actually proposed, he wanted to raise this child together. He thought it would be for the best, but we talked more and we decided to keep it a secret to protect Lucky and Sam. It only blew up in our faces later. Sam and Jason's relationship ended and Lucky and Sam got together. Jason and I tried a relationship again and he proposed for real and I said yes."

She looked up at him.

It was a lot of information to absorb. Of course looking at Jake and then looking at Jason it was actually kind of obvious, but still…wow. He wondered how Jason would take the news about Lucky when he found out.

He decided to ignore the feeling he had when Elizabeth said she said yes to Jason's proposal.

"What happened?"

A look of guilt crossed her face.

"The day he proposed was the day Michael was shot. He came back here after you had made it to the hospital and we broke it off. It had just shown us what we had already known; not that it made it any easier at the time."

Jax would never forget that day. It was easily one of the worst days of his life.

He remembered suddenly that he had come to see her that day.

"So wait, when I came to see you that day you had just ended your engagement to Jason?"

She nodded.

"I'm sorry."

And he was. Regardless of what he felt for Jason he knew that had to have been difficult.

"Don't because even after all of that it hadn't really sunken in. The delusional part of my brain thought I could still have a relationship with Jason if I just kept it a secret and kept him away from my children (he hated that self-deprecation in her voice). It took Jake being kidnapped before I learned my lesson."

"At least you learned though. It takes time to fall out of love with someone, Elizabeth. And you both did what you knew was best for your child. Jason at least showed that he truly cared about Jake by letting him go because he knew it would be the only way he could be safe."

Unlike Sonny who had only let Morgan and Michael go because he knew it was just a move to pacify Carly until she was no longer mad at him. At least Jason could prove that he truly cared about his child.

He saw something flash behind Elizabeth's eyes. It was just a flicker of some emotion before it was gone.

"I'm surprised you didn't know. It felt like everyone in Port Charles had already learned the truth somehow. I guess Carly didn't want to mention it because she knew you would be on different sides."

Of course Carly had known. Carly had to know everything that was going on in Jason's life, regardless of whether or not it had anything to do with her.

"You know what? It doesn't even really matter anymore. It's all over with now. You and your children are finally safe and I'm divorced and in an oddly good mood. I think we should take this moment to forget the past and just look forward to the future and whatever it holds for us."

He gives her the warmest and brightest smile he was capable of, and can't help the feeling that comes over him when she smiled back.

* * *

**AN: Sorry this update took a little longer. I had bio lab until two on Friday and then I had to watch GH real quick before I had to go to Haltom City and baby sit my niece for the three-day weekend and she just went to be a few hours ago. I'm about to start writing my first essay in English 112 on Wednesday so I'm not sure if when the updates will be during that time. Whatever they are will probably remain like that until December when the semester is over.**

**Thank you to everyone for reading and have a safe weekend!**


	10. Chapter 10 Anniversary

**AN: GRRRRRR!**

**Sorry for the long wait. I had a huge issue with writer's block on this chapter. I knew what I wanted to write but couldn't find the right words. Then I had written the chapter and was at college and was writing something else and I saved it but it says I didn't so all my writing was for naught :(**

**So now I'm starting over.**

**Thank you to: **

**Lizbeth2003, Kimmy123, Mommyzilla, sashahailee, trini12180, jennymar, Through the Mirror Darkly, 13Sarah94, sweetgirl23, Spiritkit, and Theresa for their wonderful reviews!**

**jennymar, TheEpicness239, janehughes, Spiritkit, and sweetgirl23 for adding this story to their favorites!**

**Spiritkit and jess8524 for following this story!**

**Something New**

**Chapter 10: Anniversary**

Johnny sighed. He had really hoped that his people wouldn't be able to come up with anything. And he really hadn't wanted it to happen so fast either. Who would've thought that Sonny would be so sloppy? Then again he had probably thought the darkness covered up everything pretty well. Regardless his people had been able to figure out what had happened and Johnny wasn't sure what to do with the information.

He hadn't been wrong when he thought Kristina would be opening a can of worms; he just hadn't realized exactly what it was she had stumbled onto. He knew she trusted him to tell her the truth but Johnny didn't think she would handle it well when she found out. Besides as far as he knew the two most important people didn't even know what had happened, and if anyone deserved to know first it would be Elizabeth and Jax. It had after all been their child who had died, but so much time had passed was it really worth bringing it all up again? They had both moved forward in their lives, and with the situation already stressed with Jax and Carly being freshly divorced now would probably be the worst time to have this come to life. It affected so many more people now then it would have had the truth had just come out then.

He thought back to the look on Kristina's face. He **knew** she would be better off not knowing any of this. She never reacted well in these situations.

He was brought out of his thoughts with a knock at his door.

With his luck it was probably Kristina.

* * *

"I'm not so sure this is a good idea. I mean it's been forever since Elizabeth and I have hung out together and I'd hate to be that the first time I do I'm going to cancel on her. Besides with this whole thing that just happened with Lucky I'm not sure now is the best time for her to be hooking up with anyone. I still can't believe Lucky would do those things and I can't imagine what Elizabeth is feeling right now."

Robin shook her head. She understood where Kristina was coming from; Robin would love nothing more than for her friend to find happiness and someone that would love and take care of her, but now wasn't that time.

"And Jax just divorced Carly. What if you pushed them together and they only ended up falling for each other in a rebound way? You would do more harm than good, Kristina. If you really think Jax and Elizabeth are meant to be then they will get together eventually."

And they would if it truly was meant to be like Kristina seemed to think. Look at her and Patrick. She hadn't been able to stand the man when he had first come to work at the hospital and now she was married and had a wonderful daughter with him. If they could go from being unable to stand each other to loving each other, then she was sure Jax and Elizabeth could too, but it would be on their own time.

Kristina had an exasperated look on her face. She knew it was the last thing the other one wanted to hear but it was the truth.

"I know they need time" Kristina sighed.

Her face became more serious.

"I didn't even know about the Lucky thing until after they sentenced him. Apparently Jax had both Mom and Diane there to make sure that Lucky couldn't worm his way out of the situation. Lucky's going away for at least five years because of the attack on Jax and another two for Elizabeth since he really hadn't gotten the opportunity to hurt her. Can you believe that? The fact that he hadn't had the opportunity to hurt her is the only reason he isn't going away for longer? You should've seen Mom too when they all were at the house and she realized that Lucky scarred Jax. She totally flipped..."

Kristina trailed off, seeming to drift off in her thoughts.

Robin was grateful that Jax had been around during this time. Robin just kept picturing Elizabeth being there instead of Jax and knowing how close she could've been to losing her friend. It scared her to because she never would've thought that Lucky would ever be capable of hurting anyone like that, and most definitely not Elizabeth.

"You see that's another reason I can't do this right now. I…I've let my friendship with Elizabeth slip because our schedules never seemed to coincide and I have Emma now and it seems as if I'm always focused on her and Patrick. I mean I don't even really have a life outside of them and it hasn't really mattered, but Elizabeth has been alone for months and I let it be like that. I can't have my first attempt to bridge the gap between us be a trick no matter how well meaning it might be."

Kristina sighed in defeat.

"I guess you're right. Too much is going on at the moment. They both need to get their lives back under control. Mom pulled me aside and said the same thing and told me that now really wasn't the time. So I guess this will all have to take a hiatus for a little while, but when it's deemed ok again and you and Elizabeth are back to normal, will you at least think about it then?"

Robin rolled her eyes. The girl was stubborn.

"If I see evidence that what you say is true and I believe it's the right time, then I might consider helping you out. But only if I think they need the push. Sometimes things like this have to happen on their own too."

Kristina let out a victorious squeal and then leaned over and hugged her.

"Thank you! You won't regret this. I promise. Now I have to go or I'm so going to be so busted. I told Mom I was going to the store for some supplies for school and if I don't show up with some she will totally ground me again, for like ever. I'm only now just getting back the privilege of being allowed out by myself."

Robin showed her out the door and then went back to sit on the couch.

She wasn't entirely sure of the whole Jax/Elizabeth thing, but she knew that Elizabeth was going to need someone on her side if anything was going to happen there. After all she knows a certain half the town will not be too pleased if something was to happen between them.

* * *

"I can't believe you didn't tell us what was going on. You know we would've helped you, right?"

Elizabeth knew that Patrick meant well. She knew he was just concerned, but it had been a tough week and she guessed with all that had happened **this** day was harder to get through than it usually was. She didn't want to talk about it now.

She sighed.

"There was a lot going on at the time. I had just gotten through destroying my family Patrick. I slept with Nikolas and I felt that I had to deal with it all on my own. How could I ask anyone for help when the entire situation was my fault to begin with?"

"You might have made a mistake but that doesn't excuse what Lucky did to you, and it doesn't excuse his behavior for the seven months before that. Besides after all the hell Lucky has put you through it's about time the man had a taste of his own medicine. And he is getting exactly what he deserves right now for what he's done to you and your sons. Don't doubt that."

She knew he was right. Lucky could've killed Jax and had hurt Cameron in a way that was unforgivable, but a part of her was still afraid and cared for Lucky. He was a cop and he was going to jail.

She was afraid he wouldn't survive.

"I know. It's just difficult right now. If I had done things differently…"

"Then it probably would've happened later" he interrupted.

"People don't just wake up one day and don't love their children anymore or suddenly become capable of hurting someone and almost killing someone. If Lucky meant what he said then some part of him has always felt that way. Better for it to come out now, so you can move on and your friends can help you; then for it to deteriorate behind closed doors. Lucky was always very controlling of you anyway and as your friend I should've caught and warned you that something like this could happen. If I had just been paying more attention…"

He had no reason to feel guilty. No one saw this coming from Lucky, and he had more on his plate to deal with, like a certain doctor who was dead set on getting into his pants. Lisa Niles still wouldn't leave poor Patrick alone. And he had his own family to look after too.

"Don't. You had plenty of your own problems to deal with. Especially when Robin was gone, and regardless I am moving on. Yes, I have to deal with these feelings I have concerning Lucky, but now my life is moving forward and things are finally getting back to a good place. But I have missed you guys. You know I was talking to Nikolas and he was thinking about him and I getting together to plan something for the boys to do next weekend, and Jax is having the kids that weekend so he was thinking about bringing Josslyn and Morgan, so if you guys are interested you could come too."

Patrick smiled.

"You know what that sounds awesome. It'd be nice to hang around some other grown-ups for once. Warning though, I spend all my time talking baby talk so I probably won't have anything interesting to talk about but Emma."

He flashed a smile, which she returned.

"I know what you mean. I spend all my time with those boys. I don't even know what's happening out in the real world anymore."

She glanced at the clock and noticed the time.

"It's time for me to get off and I have somewhere to go, so I'll call you with further details and let you know what the plan is, ok?"

He nodded, grabbed his chart and then headed off. Elizabeth hurried towards the elevator, thinking she should get to the florist just in time to get the flowers she wanted.

* * *

Jax placed the flowers at the base of the tree. It was hard to believe it had been five years since the car crash. He made a point of coming here at least one a year on this day. Every year the tree was just a little taller and it made him wonder what his daughter would have been like had she lived.

He always tried to come when he knew no one else would be here, especially Elizabeth. It had taken all his will to see her on that day after the first year after their baby had passed. Because he knew. He knew who was responsible and he never told her. It had been one of those _few_ instances where he understood what Jason and Sonny were saying. Carly had literally been out of her mind when she ran in front of his car. She hadn't meant to cause the accident and she definitely hadn't wanted to kill an innocent child.

It didn't make it any easier and didn't excuse that he never told her the truth. If anyone had deserved to know what had happened to their child, it was Elizabeth. After everything that had happened in that pregnancy and the pain of losing the child…he should have told her the moment he found out. She would've been upset and she would've wanted justice, but that was her right. And if Sonny and Jason could convince him not to tell then he should have been more than capable of making Elizabeth understand.

He just knew that he couldn't keep this from her any longer. He had meant it when he talked about them both finally being able to move forward in their lives and he couldn't continue this friendship like it was unless he told her the truth. If she found out that he had known and it seemed as if he was never going to tell her it could ruin the friendship they were building.

It could be ruined anyway for him keeping it a secret for so long.

He hears footsteps behind and turns around to see her standing behind him with flowers in her hand, her face flashing in surprise before a small smile graced her face.

"I've never seen you up here before. I come here every year and look at the tree. You know its grown quite a bit in the last five years. Maybe it's silly but when I see it I just feel like she's lived on. I can't help but wonder how big she would be now, what she would like to do, what she'd look like…"

She came up next to him and bent over to place the flowers before straightening and then leaning up against him. His heart was heavy, but he tried his hardest to smile back.

"I do the same thing. I know she would have been amazing. We both would've loved her with all her hearts, and with everything we would've taught her…But you're right she's lived on in memory with this tree. That was the point."

The deep sorrow he felt and the guilt became overwhelming and he placed his arm around her, just for a brief second of comfort before hastily removing it and moving away from her.

Confusion crossed her face.

"Jax? Is everything all right?"

He honestly had no idea how she was going to react.

He shook his head.

"I need to tell you something. It's about the night of the wreck…I"

She steps closer and gently touches his arm with her hand.

"Jax, there's nothing you could've done. You can't help that some crazy woman jumped out in the middle of the road."

She thought he was feeling responsible for the death of the baby (she wasn't entirely wrong he always felt that if he had paid a little bit more attention to the road that night maybe things could have turned out differently).

"I know. It's not that. I…I know who it was that ran out into the road."

* * *

Johnny grabbed his phone. He just couldn't drop this bombshell on her. Some things were not meant to be unburied, and what would be gained from it being uncovered? No, this was one of the secrets of Port Charles that was going to remain buried, or at least Johnny himself wasn't going to be the one to unearth it. Now wasn't the time for this information to come out, and he wasn't sure if there would ever really be a **good** time.

He was a little relieved when he only got her voice mail.

"Hey, Kristina it's Johnny. I have to talk you about that question you asked me. When you get this why don't you just come on over so we can talk about it. Alright, well I'll see you then."

He closed the phone.

It wasn't how he would've liked to spend his evening, but there were worse ways. He only wished he had been as lucky as Ethan had in being able to spend the evening with Maya.

Oh well, as soon as he had this business with Kristina over, he could call up Olivia and see what she was up to. He just had to hope Kristina got the message and came over quick, after all he didn't think that Olivia would be very happy to see Kristina back over here after everything had happened with the car bomb.

* * *

Sam didn't know what she was going to do. She had been excited that Jason was coming home until she found out that _Brenda_ was coming home with him. Why did Jason have to be everyone's savior? Could no one in this town find anyone else who was just as capable as fixing all their problems? Wasn't it enough that Jason had flown half way across the world to protect her? Now he just had to bring her home too?

She knew Jason was just doing what he thought he had too, but she couldn't help but feel a bit insecure. This woman was Jason's ex-wife and was a model, and men were constantly falling over themselves to help her, and even though she knew Jason didn't have feelings for Brenda, it didn't make it any easier. At least she knew that Jason really couldn't have enjoyed himself if that picture of him and her at that red carpet event had been anything to go by.

She chuckled at the thought. She knew that Jason must have only of gone because Brenda insisted on going.

She knew she was being ridiculous with her insecurities over Jason and Brenda, but if she was going to feel that way, and he was going to bring her here, then she was at least going to do her best not to out shown by the high-maintenance brunette.

Luckily she knew the perfect blonde to help her out.

* * *

Elizabeth felt shock come over her.

"Yeah we both do. Some crazy lunatic that doesn't understand what headlights mean."

Jax looked as if the words were killing him and she was trying to beat down the thoughts that were coming up.

"No. I know who. The real person."

She couldn't feel anything but the shock and confusion. How on earth…

"I…how? Who?"

Elizabeth had long since given up the thought of ever finding out who had caused the wreck that caused the miscarriage. It had been too dark after the crash and Jax hadn't seen anything and she just figured it was one of those things. She had managed to find peace with it. But now…she didn't know what she would do, but by Jax's look she knew it had to have been someone they or she knew.

A look of immense pain and guilt came over Jax's face.

"Carly."

A numb feeling came over her then. She didn't know what she should feel. It was if she had tried to feel so much and one moment that she was left with feeling nothing.

"How…how did you find out? I mean I know Carly didn't tell you, right? I mean what would she gain…"

Her thoughts were too scattered. She didn't know what to do with this information.

"I found out not that long after the accident. I was going to tell you and I was going to bring charges but…"

"Wait! You knew the whole time!? You knew who was responsible for the death of our baby and you didn't think _**I**_ needed to know that!? You didn't think that maybe I had a right to know who was responsible!? I was the one who carried that baby inside of me Jax! Why didn't you tell me!? Why did you wait this long and why are you telling me this now!?"

She felt so betrayed in that moment. How could he do that?

"There isn't an excuse for not telling you. I never should have kept it from you. If the two men I hate nothing more in this world could make me understand why they didn't want Carly sent away then I should have been able to do the same for you. Even at the worst you are always reasonable. I just I knew you would want to hold someone responsible, I know because I did, but I was afraid I wouldn't…Carly wasn't herself at the time. She didn't even know where she was when she ran into the middle of that road. She was hallucination, half the time she didn't know where she was. She didn't intentionally try to hurt you or the baby. She never would have wanted that for you. Jason and Sonny, and I eventually agreed that it would be horrible for her to go to jail over something that she really had no control over in the first place."

He paused for a second.

"I am **so** sorry, Elizabeth."

And she could tell he was. There was so much guilt in his face and eyes, and she could see that he realized that what he done was wrong, but she couldn't do this right now. She couldn't. She had barely been able to control her feelings today before this, though now she thinks she may have subconsciously realized something was going to happen, but with all of this information it was just too much. Too much to absorb in too little of time.

She could feel tears in her eyes.

"I…I can't do this right now. I have to…"

She couldn't even form a sentence. She couldn't think. She needed to go somewhere alone where she could sort through everything.

And that's what she did. She just left him standing there.

She didn't want to break down in front of him. Not this time.

* * *

"Of course I will. You know all you have to do is ask, Elizabeth. I love spending time with my nephews and it has been awhile since I have. Is everything ok though? You sound really upset."

Steven listened as his sister gave her usual vague answers, the ones she gave when she was very upset but didn't want him to know. Someone must need to see the big brother side of him then.

"Take all the time you need. I'll pick the boys up from day care and take them to my apartment. You can come pick them up when you're ready. I love you. And be careful and if you need anything call."

He placed the phone down and frowned. She had sounded extremely upset, and he was surprised because she seemed to have been doing so well all things considered. He had been shocked and then angered when he found out what Lucky had done. The man was lucky he was behind bars. He was also a little hurt that Elizabeth hadn't told him about the situation. Surely she had known as her brother that he would never turn her away. If she had needed help all she had to do was ask.

Guilt ate at him to that he hadn't noticed. How does one not notice their own sister's distress and isolation? They work together! He should have noticed. Maybe then things wouldn't have gotten so out of hand.

Regardless he was glad that she had at least someone in her corner, even if he wasn't entirely sure what to think of that someone. He was grateful that Jax had been able to help her through this time, but he hoped that the other man wasn't looking for someone to rebound on and was truly just looking for friendship in Elizabeth. She had been through far too much to have her heart ripped to shreds even more by some idiot.

Elizabeth swore on Jax's credibility though and assured him that if hadn't been for the other man she didn't know what she would have done. Jax had made the falling apart of his baby sister's world less difficult and had enabled her to begin moving on, so for now it was enough for him to give the other man the benefit of the doubt.

* * *

Kristina was just about to check her voice mail when she heard Jax's voice filter into her room. She jumped up from her bed and went to see what was up. Maybe he was here to talk about Elizabeth. The more she could learn about their relationship and how it was developing the better.

She hid herself behind the wall as best she could and then turned to see what was happening.

"Jax! Oh no. What's happened? Is it Carly? Because if she's giving you any grief about the children she's breaching the custody agreement you both signed as part of the divorce papers. All we have to do is get a judge and…"

"Carly hasn't done anything. At least nothing recently. Everything that just happened is all my fault."

Kristina hadn't heard Jax use that tone since he came over to tell her mom about the divorce and even then it was made better after the meeting in the park with Elizabeth. Oh no! Did something happen to Elizabeth?

Her mom's look grew concerned and she led him over to the couch where they both sat down.

"Ok. What happened? You look horrible."

"I never should have lied to her. I should have told her the day I found out. God why didn't I?"

"Who are we talking about here? Because again, if it's Carly, it's not like she hasn't told a billion lies herself and that would probably only be the number for this last year. I think you're allowed one lie, Jax."

Kristina didn't think it was Carly this time. She had horrible feeling too.

"What would you do if you miscarried your child and I knew who was responsible the entire time and never told you?"

Her mom creased her brow and the horrible feeling made its way down towards her stomach.

"I don't know. Why on earth would…"

Something must have occurred to her mother because she stopped and looked at Jax in shock.

"Jax…are you telling me what I think you're telling me?"

He nodded.

"Yeah. I've known almost since it happened. I was so angry that day too. God, all I wanted to do was turn Carly in the moment I found out. Sonny and Jason managed to talk me out of it, but why did I agree not to tell Elizabeth? Of all the people she deserved to know, and now I might have ruined our friendship forever."

Her mom's face was stunned and if anyone looked her way she was sure hers would show the same. There was silence while her mom absorbed the information. Kristina wasn't even sure what she had just heard for sure, but she could feel the emotions bubbling beneath. If she understood what Jax just said…

"Let me make sure I understand this. The person who jumped out in front of your car and caused Elizabeth's miscarriage was Carly, and then you found out and Sonny and Jason asked you not to press charges and they somehow convinced you of it, and then you didn't tell her until today I'm guessing?"

Jax nodded.

"How on earth did they manage to do that? You hate Sonny and Jason. If Carly killed your baby what on earth could they have said?"

"When I found out Sonny had already covered it up as much as he could. No one saw Carly there. Even if I had wanted to I doubt I could have had charges pressed against Carly…"

Kristina didn't hear the rest. Her emotions had reached their peak. It was everything she was afraid of when Jax mentioned her father and Carly. Her dad helped that woman cover up the death of an unborn child! How could he do that! If the roles had been reversed there was no way he would've let it go.

Just when she thought her father couldn't get any worse.

She ran back into her room and grabbed her phone and keys. She needed to talk to someone and she knew exactly where she had to go. Johnny probably wouldn't be pleased that she arrived at his place in tears looking for comfort, but she could at least tell him she didn't need him to find that information after all.

* * *

Alexis listened as Jax told the whole story. In the end she understood what Jax had done and why. But if he came to her looking for hope on the Elizabeth thing she wasn't sure what she could offer him.

"Elizabeth is going to need a lot of time to digest all of this. I mean not only did you just drop the bombshell on her that you knew, but that Jason who she had also trusted knew, and there will probably the feelings she'll have over you deciding to marry Carly after all of that if she isn't exactly clear on what the situation was like. The only thing you can do right now is give her space and then let her come to you when she's ready to talk. But I do have to ask. Why now after all this time? Why did you tell her now?"

She watched as he rubbed his hand across his face. He looked so guilty. She hoped that Elizabeth would at least be able to see that Jax was sorry. Even if she hadn't wanted to admit it to Diane, she had seen the way Jax had defended Elizabeth and could tell that her friendship, no matter how new, was important to him.

Even though she was usually the pessimist in these situations she felt that this would only be a road block that they would have to get by in their friendship. A BIG road block that could take time to get over, but they would. It all really depended on how Elizabeth dealt with the news and if she could understand Jax's reasoning and stance.

"She had just revealed something to me the other night. I think she was worried on how I would respond. I told her that we had both reached a point where we just needed to let the past be and began moving forward to wherever life wanted us to go next. I realized today that I couldn't say that and try and do that and keep this from her. Not after that. It had to come out."

The clean slate. At least he was trying to do the right thing.

"If it helps I think you'll definitely get points for telling her. And if what you just said, then she really might just need time to wrap her brain around this entire thing. I'm sure she's going to have a lot of questions but if you're honest and explain the situation, I think she'll understand."

It was the only thing she was willing to say to give him hope. She didn't really have a reason to explain her sudden optimism. Maybe it was just her hoping for Jax's sake that Elizabeth wouldn't let this ruin their friendship.

From her experience, it was highly unlike the woman to not, and recent events and her and Jax's sudden closeness would surely play in their favor.

She hoped so.

Jax just nodded and then smiled at her.

"Thanks for listening. I didn't ask if you had plans. I just came in and dumped my problems on you"

Alexis rolled her eyes.

"It's what friends are for Jax. You know I'm always here if you need someone to talk ."

She glanced at the clock and jumped up,

"And now I do need to go. Molly is doing something for her Open House and I have to be there to see it. If you want to stay feel free and we can talk when I get back. Help yourself to anything in the fridge."

She gave him a hug and then hurried out the door, praying she wouldn't be late.

* * *

Luke adjusted the seat, trying to find a comfortable position. He just couldn't sit still; anxious about returning to Port Charles. He hadn't really talked to anyone before he had left. He hadn't apologized to Elizabeth and her boys, to Jax, and he really hadn't to Ethan either. He had tried, but his emotions had been all over the place. He would tell him that everything was fine and that he hadn't held it against him and then would go on and rant.

His ranting hadn't been directed at Ethan though; no he hadn't really been angry at him then. He had been angry at himself for what had happened to Lucky. He had been the one to give Lucky the idea, he had been the one who had left Lucky alone when he was growing up, he was the one who made it seem like it was appropriate behavior.

Then there was the anger and disappointment directed at Lucky. That he had gone after Elizabeth like that. She had been alone and basically defenseless. Lucky had been there to cause Elizabeth true harm and serious injury. He had seen it in Lucky's eyes and his voice before he came to the door. His eyes told Luke that he could have killed her.

And that was got to Luke. Because those eyes, that person, wasn't the son that he and mostly Laura had raised. There had been no trace of the old Lucky, not even when Luke had gone to visit him while he had been arrested. Lucky had tried to act like his old self and tried to plead with him using the son card, but he could see it was too late. The man he would've broken out of jail wasn't his Lucky. He would've just gone right back out there and tried to hurt Elizabeth and the next time she probably wouldn't be alone. The next time the boys probably wouldn't have been at Nikolas', so no matter how much it hurt him to do it, he left Lucky there.

It was why he left Port Charles. He didn't trust himself, that as it got closer to the trial and the sentencing that he would stick to his resolve. Lucky was a cop. No matter what he had done, Lucky going to jail was almost a death sentence. Lucky was his son and he couldn't stay in there and watch him be sent away, and now he had been with a seven-year sentence.

It was still going to be hard, but he had to go back now. He had to somehow make up for his and Lucky's mistakes.

He owed it to Elizabeth and her children.

* * *

Brenda hated this plane. Normally she didn't have an issue with flying, but knowing she was headed back to Port Charles was too much. She was afraid that at any second the plane was going to crash because horrible things always happened when that city was involved. The nightmare she had just had didn't help things either. She needed something to distract her so she wouldn't keep freaking out.

"Why don't you tell me what else is going on in Port Charles? Oh! I know! You can tell me about Jax! What is he up to?"

A look of disgust came over Jason's face.

"Oh come on, don't be like that. Jax is a great man, Jason. I don't understand why the two of you just can't get along, but come on! I haven't seen him in forever! And it could help, well you know distract me from everything. Unless you'd rather me drone on about the multiple events that you're making me miss and the ones I've been to in last few years. Like a few months ago I went to this fabulous…"

"Fine. It's not like there's much to tell in the first place. I guess he's been doing relatively well. He and Carly finally had a baby girl named Josslyn. Him and Carly are getting a divorce though. Actually if Carly hasn't caused any more problems they should already be divorced. And that's it."

What!

"Woah! Jax married Carly!? When did that happen!? Why?"

She was sure she was the one with a look of disgust on her face now. Of all the people for Jax to get involved with he chose Carly? She can't even begin to wonder why he would put himself through that mess, but he'd obviously learned his lesson.

"This is why would should talk about something else. You don't like Carly and I don't like Jax. Dangerous topic."

She rolled her eyes.

"I haven't even said anything yet. I just can't imagine why Jax would even waste his time with someone like Carly unless he was being forced to or something. Oh my god! That's it isn't it. I bet…"

"Carly and Jax married each other because they said the loved each other, Brenda. They were married for three years and have a **child**."

Geez. He was being sensitive.

"Well if they were so happy and have this child together, then why did they get divorced?"

Jason crossed his arms and huffed in annoyance.

"Look, they both made plenty of mistakes. They decided they weren't good for each other anymore, now…"

At that moment the plane hit some bad turbulence and she went into freak out mode. Imagining their death's all over again. She just knew something bad was going to happen in Port Charles. She could feel that there was something in the air around there. Something big was going to go down in Port Charles, something that she could be bringing with her, and she had no idea if it was all going to turn out ok, or if everything was about to be wiped away, but she knew something was happening.

She just hoped they all made it out in one piece.

* * *

**AN: I am so sorry for such a long wait. I hope the next chapter is up faster and that there will be nowhere near as many problems next time I try to write. I hope this chapter is worth the wait!**

**I have decided to change the Lisa Niles storyline. Patrick never slept with her, but she is still trying to get him too. I love Patrick and Robin and though they didn't end with the whole Lisa thing, there is just so much going on and I just never liked it and I would like for them to be the beginning of Elizabeth reconnecting with her old life. On that subject though, Lisa is not going away. I already think I know what I'm going to do with her character and it should hopefully be interesting.**

**If there are any inaccuracies with the Jax knowing about the accident it is only because there are no scenes that I could find to watch him finding out so I really had to just guess. I have watched scenes of Carly's breakdown and a scene from December of 05 where Jax tells Carly he knows, but that's all I could find. (I have been looking since before I started writing this story but with little luck)**

**I have also had some concerns about Sam's character and I just wanted to say that I think with considering all that has happened it is a realistic way that Sam could react. In 2007 they showed how Sam had been an in abusive relationship, and I think that compassionate side of her would come out in this scenario. I don't think it's too crazy for her to be glad that Elizabeth would be ok.**

**Sam and Elizabeth have this relationship where they aren't friends and they can co-exist and both can be reasonable. **

**I do appreciate people pointing out and I do think to a degree that y'all are right, but I also think it is something that is possible. I think for some reason I just think really favorably of Sam which is weird because I hated her when I first started watching the show (but that was during when she watched Jake being kidnapped so probably not the best time to get a good view of the character),**

**If you guys see anything else like that always feel free to tell me. It is important to me that I keep the characters reacting in a way that is plausible for their character. **

**Thank you all for reading and your support and your patience!**


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